There are two definitions of "racist". One is, saying something about an entire race that is untrue (is racism). The other is, saying anything that implies that every race isn't exactly the same ("equal") is racism. For the latter, a simple description like "exotic" is a racist description.
Or they went the other way and said that the gods were really Christian saints.Heh, yeah. Old Testament God isn't the nicest guy, he gets pretty vindictive.
Really, there are no "good" or "evil" gods in real world mythology, not like we have in D&D. Essentially, the gods my people follow are "good" and the gods other peoples follow are "evil". In fact, most of the named Christian demons are adapted from pagan gods who were not evil (any more or less than any other cultural god). These pagan gods, and the religions/cultures surrounding them, were literally demonized in order to show non-Christian faiths as evil and wrong.
I've always felt it would be interesting to tell new stories of the evil gods of D&D in such a manner. They are not really evil, but are just simply the cultural gods of peoples dehumanized by the "good" or "demihuman" races. Gruumsh an evil, savage war god who drives the orcs to slaughter innocents? Nah, he's a war god similar to Thor, who wields authority over justified war and the elements. And he takes second place to Luthic, an earth mother goddess who teaches the orcs the importance of family and home.
EDIT: For some reason I forgot "The Adversary", the god or demon whose sole purpose is to be the source of evil and misfortune. These figures are rarely objects of worship, as they might be in D&D, but serve as opposites to highlight why "god is good" and to tempt mortals into making bad choices.
One of my son's characters is a dwarf that is pretty racist against drows. Both of my daughter's characters are drows. While his racist character slowly comes to accept them, the rest of the party (including his other character, a dwarf that accepts everybody) plays a lot of peace keeping. We are working on turning it into a Gimli/Legolas type of character arc.I keep any racism out of my campaigns, even if it is fantasy. But some nationalities in my campaign may be mistrusted, due to wars and/or piracy. But that is not based on their race or the color of their skin, but on politics and crime.
For the most part, it is. Humans are hardwired to protect "us" from "them". It's not going away any time in the near (or far) future. That's why anything that focuses on how different groups of people are, no matter how well intentioned, generally tends to inflame racism and other schism. The only solution for racism is to make race not part of the definition of "us" or "them". Which is a lot easier said than done.Honestly, isn't a lot of real-world racism primarily cultural and less about skin tone, even in the US? As in a lot of objections on minorities boil down to "they aren't like us (culturally)"?
I'm beginning to wonder more and more if most racism really is some form of xenophobia actually.