D&D General "Red Orc" American Indians and "Yellow Orc" Mongolians in D&D

[Paul Farquhar]

I mean, tell me about it?

My wife and I fought a three-year legal battle against the Home Office because of the introduction of the "Hostile Environment" policy leading to some idiot at the Home Office refusing her leave to remain, and then trying to deport her. Eventually we won, because just before we went to court, the HO went "OOPS SORRY! ALL A MISTAKE!!!" after all sort of horrible threats and nasty phone calls and so on, paid us our costs (as the court required), and gave her ILR.

I don't think that's anything new. The only novel thing is that Brexit has invalidated vast numbers of people's right to remain, and the Home Office, still being completely incompetent and unfit for purpose, and still having a "Hostile Environment" attitude, is probably trying to deport people who have quite properly and rightly applied for settled status and so on.

So your friends have my sympathies and my rage, but I don't see this as novel racism myself, rather something bad now impacts even more people.

The difference is, these are people who settled thinking they had every right to be here, and didn't think needed to do things like collect documentary evidence of everything they had ever done here. Someone coming from the US say would know the hurdles before hand and consider if they wanted to go to the trouble or not. Having the rules suddenly and unexpectedly changed on you is somewhat different, and the reason for the rule change was anti-European racism.

 

[Aldarc]

That's not quite what I meant. Connecting racism in comics to racism in the country could itself be interpreted as racist, and anti-European racism is a big problem here at present.

I'm an American living in Austria with a German partner. Why do I care about your or the UK's opinion on racism in contintental Europe when all I'm doing is pointing to how the racism in these Franco-Belgian comics could have influenced a young Bruce Heard. You keep trying to deflect this point to the irrelevant issue of UK xenophobia against continental Europe.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

The difference is, these are people who settled thinking they had every right to be here, and didn't think needed to do things like collect documentary evidence of everything they had ever done here. Someone coming from the US say would know the hurdles before hand and consider if they wanted to go to the trouble or not. Having the rules suddenly and unexpectedly changed on you is somewhat difference, and the reason for the rule change was anti-European racism.

I don't think the situation is as different as you think, especially if you haven't dealt with it. We weren't collecting documentary evidence either, just what was required at the time, which was pretty minimal before 2012-ish. Then we got an absolute inquisition after they messed up. So I suspect it's kind of a similar experience. The Hostile Environment was brand-new when we dealt with it, and so we went from a system where people were relatively reasonable and straightforward to one where assumption was that you were trying to pull a fast one.

As for "racism caused Brexit", well, that might be flying a little close to the "no politics" stuff so I don't really want to address than beyond saying obviously it was an element in the attitudes of some voters. I'd concur with @Aldarc that it's a bit of a distraction (I stopped talking about Rome, note, which I do actually agree on reflection was getting off-topic).

 

[Vaalingrade]

Some people just don't like confronting the issue of the past, ignoring that those who don't learn from the past are doomed to repeat it.

Or get really angry at those who are trying to learn from the past.

 

[MGibster]

Some people just don't like confronting the issue of the past, ignoring that those who don't learn from the past are doomed to repeat it.

Which people do you mean? Nobody, so far as I can recall, had a problem with the OP pointing out the issues with GAZ10. Nobody really seems to have a problem with the idea of confronting the past. We may disagree on how to confront it, but that’s about it.

 

[Maxperson]

Or both. They could do both.

Insult them AND apologize. That's a novel solution.

 

[Snarf Zagyg]

Insult them AND apologize. That's a novel solution.

In my younger years, I dated someone like that ... it was kind of standard operating procedure for them.

It was really hot, until it got very tiring.

...wait, what are we talking about?

 

[shannona]

The review on DriveThruRPG can be found here:

DriveThruRPG

www.drivethrurpg.com

And this is the review that I have the biggest problem with, because of this statement here:
That's right: you either love it because it's "groundbreaking," or you hate it because it's "funny."

However, it's the only write-up that includes the Wizards of the Coast disclaimer "We (Wizards) recognize that some of the legacy content available on this website does not reflect the values of the Dungeons & Dragons franchise today", etc. And this is appropriate, since to my knowledge, this is the only place where this book can still be purchased (PDF only, $9.99USD). Still, that dismissive "you don't like this because you don't like funny" really sticks in my craw.

It wasn't a review, it was a historical overview of the supplement, albeit one written in July 2014: my perspective and discussion would be quite a bit different now given the discussion of biological essentialism that has mainstreamed since then. But I find it likely that what I described was what people were saying about the supplement at the time.

So I mentioned the two main streams of response that I'd seen about the book. It's not an explicit either/or as you state: it's two responses that appeared in peoples' discussions. Obviously there can be more possibilities. However, if there were discussions of more problematic elements that I'd found at the time it's likely I would have included them. (Can't say for sure that I didn't: that was seven and a half years ago, and I wrote 2+ histories every week for years.)

The Legacy Content warning was added at the end of all my product histories two years ago, so yeah it might not be totally in sync with the rest of the article. Unfortunately, I no longer have permission to edit them at this point, and haven't for at least a year or two (maybe longer, but sometime last year was the first time I went to fix a typo and discovered I no longer could).

The next version of these histories, with expansion and a more modern perspective, is going to appear in a series of "TSR Codices". GAZ10 is toward the start of Book IV, and I'm starting Book III next month.

 

[Voadam]

I am all for awareness and analysis of GAZ10's contents. I believe awareness and analysis is useful.

I am very much against calls for GAZ10 being pulled.

 

[Voadam]

It wasn't a review, it was a historical overview of the supplement, albeit one written in July 2014: my perspective and discussion would be quite a bit different now given the discussion of biological essentialism that has mainstreamed since then. But I find it likely that what I described was what people were saying about the supplement at the time.

So I mentioned the two main streams of response that I'd seen about the book. It's not an explicit either/or as you state: it's two responses that appeared in peoples' discussions. Obviously there can be more possibilities. If there were discussions of more problematic elements that I'd found at the time it's likely I would have included them. (Can't say for sure that I didn't: that was seven and a half years ago, and I wrote 2+ histories every week for years.)

The Legacy Content warning was plopped atop all my product histories two years ago, so yeah it might not be totally in sync with the rest of the article. Unfortunately, I no longer have permission to edit them at this point, and haven't for at least a year or two (maybe longer, but sometime last year was the first time I went to fix a typo and discovered I no longer could).

The next version of these histories, with expansion and a more modern perspective, is going to appear in a series of "TSR Codices". GAZ10 is toward the start of Book IV, and I'm starting Book III next month.

I just want to say I really appreciate the individual product histories and context and enjoyed reading them as different D&D legacy PDFs were re-released.

I wish they had you continue with them as there are others without them that I would have enjoyed similar context and background on as well.