WotC Older D&D Books on DMs Guild Now Have A Disclaimer

If you go to any of the older WotC products on the Dungeon Master's Guild, they now have a new disclaimer very similar to that currently found at the start of Looney Tunes cartoons.

We recognize that some of the legacy content available on this website, does not reflect the values of the Dungeon & Dragons franchise today. Some older content may reflect ethnic, racial and gender prejudice that were commonplace in American society at that time. These depictions were wrong then and are wrong today. This content is presented as it was originally created, because to do otherwise would be the same as claiming these prejudices never existed. Dungeons & Dragons teaches that diversity is a strength, and we strive to make our D&D products as welcoming and inclusive as possible. This part of our work will never end.

The wording is very similar to that found at the start of Looney Tunes cartoons.

Edit: Wizards has put out a statement on Twitter (click through to the full thread)

 

[Levistus's_Leviathan]

Okay, but in more general terms, we are having a discussion about racism and d&d and pointing out that the d&d description of humans isn’t racist is certainly applicable to that discussion.

How I interpreted that post was "All humans of every color in D&D are the same mechanically, and therefore all this racism stuff is nonsense". Did I misinterpret that?

But more relevantly it primes the discussion for the idea that non-humans are actually non-humans and don’t actually represent humans at all. If you would just for a moment try to see d&d through that lens you might be able to acknowledge that D&d is not racists when viewed through that lens.

How would human game designers make non-human cultures with religion, language, intelligence, and agency without at least semi-basing/taking inspiration from humans? That claim is far-fetched. Of course a civilization of people in a fantasy game will have to represent humans in some way.

i certainly can acknowledge it’s racist and problematic when viewed from your lens.

It's not viewed from my lens. I'm not BIPOC, and I personally do not find these offensive, but I do acknowledge that some do, and we should change the wording because of that.

Thus, our disagreement is over which way to interpret non-human races in d&d - essentially which lens to use.

Not "lens to use" because no one can truly see through another person's eyes. We don't get to look from their position, but we can understand it in a way. Sure, you and I may not find it offensive, and sure humans don't have mechanical differences based on race in D&D, but not everyone may view it that way, because they have different personal experiences.

 

[Doug McCrae]

For an example of a fantasy race used as a metaphor for British imperialism, see Michael Moorcock's Melnibonéans in the Elric novels. They don't look much like orcs!

 

[FrogReaver]

Great!

Then game designers should stop using descriptors for them that have actual real-world baggage of demeaning, demonizing or dehumanizing minorities.

Problem solved!

when you actually view nonhumans as nonhumans there doesn’t exist a problem that needs solved.

 

[FrogReaver]

Great!

Then game designers should stop using descriptors for them that have actual real-world baggage of demeaning, demonizing or dehumanizing minorities.

Problem solved!

when nonhuman races are actually viewed as nonhumans there is no problem to solve.

 

[Levistus's_Leviathan]

when you actually view nonhumans as nonhumans there doesn’t exist a problem that needs solved.

When you realize that humans have viewed other human groups as nonhumans, it shows that there is language mirrored in your posts, and the language describing orcs.

 

[FrogReaver]

When you realize that humans have viewed other human groups as nonhumans, it shows that there is language mirrored in your posts, and the language describing orcs.

doesn’t matter. In this view Orcs are nonhumans. It’s okay to dehumanize a nonhuman.

 

[Levistus's_Leviathan]

doesn’t matter. In this view Orcs are nonhumans. It’s okay to dehumanize a nonhuman.

(Emphasis mine)
Said the white supremacists when they called BIPOC "nonhumans" or genetically inferior.

 

[Gradine]

What is a human?

Is it our typical range of skin and hair color, the relative un-pointyness of our ears?

Or is it our capacity for higher levels of thought; for language and culture?

 

[Fenris-77]

Hmm, let's try a different version: It's ok to dehumanize a xenos species. Now what do we think?

 

[FrogReaver]

(Emphasis mine)
Said the white supremacists when they called BIPOC "nonhumans" or genetically inferior.

sure they did. And they were wrong. but from this viewpoint, orcs are objectively not humans.