D&D General (Anecdotal) conversations with Asian gamers on some problems they currently face in the D&D world of RPG gaming

[Bedrockgames]

In my view, racism and white supremacy are so prevalent in every part of our culture that it is the responsibility of every person, be they a publisher or a teacher or a plumber or a parent, to actively fight against them.

I do think there are issues of racism in the country. I do not think this assumption is a good one though or an accurate one. And I think when you make racism a phantom you can't see or touch, it will lead to very dark places, and not reduce racism in the world.

 

[BookTenTiger]

I do think there are issues of racism in the country. I do not think this assumption is a good one though or an accurate one. And I think when you make racism a phantom you can't see or touch, it will lead to very dark places, and not reduce racism in the world.

Isn't suggesting that WotC not take a stance literally turning racism into a phantom that cannot be seen or touched?

I'm an elementary school teacher, and the amount of work I have to do to actively get white supremacy and racism out of my curriculum is stunning and heartbreaking.

 

[WayOfTheFourElements]

Isn't suggesting that WotC not take a stance literally turning racism into a phantom that cannot be seen or touched?

I'm an elementary school teacher, and the amount of work I have to do to actively get white supremacy and racism out of my curriculum is stunning and heartbreaking.

What kind of white supremacy and racism do you deal with?

 

[LuisCarlos17f]

Free expresion is to report what has to be fixed or improved, not to be a toxic person who abuses psychologically who has got different points of view. If you really want to convince you have to show respect to get their trust.

I advice positive stimulus to make people to change. Usually being polite and nice is the best strategy to cause higher influence on other people. The "you shouldn't publish this" should be replaced with "do allow me to show how should be done". If we allow all this matter as a taboo, then we would be closing a door what would al

And who worries about that Netflix serie where a group of faes with the famous sword Excalibur fight the fanatical order of the scarlet mujahideens?

If you really want to erradicate the racism and other types of hate-speech then you have to defend ethical values as the respect for the human dignity, the basis of our rights as citizens.

 

[BookTenTiger]

What kind of white supremacy and racism do you deal with?

To keep this on topic, I'm going to focus on how when publishers do not actively fight racism and white supremacy they wind up supporting it.

If anyone wants to talk about how school choice, volunteer screening, state testing, and other systems embedded in the American education system are also super racist, feel free to PM me.

I teach 3rd Grade (8 - 9 year olds), and our standards focus on eras of settlement in local history. We work with the local Historical Society, who supply us with a free textbook and field trips. The Historical Society is a group of very, very nice older locals with a real passion for history. However, their textbooks focus 90% on white settlers. The coastal town I teach in was inhabited by Native Americans for thousands of years; Mexicans and Portuguese for hundreds of years, and had the very first fully integrated government housing during the shipbuilding era of World War II. But the Historical Society based their textbooks off of the records they have, and the records that survived history are mostly those of wealthy white inhabitants. The historical society is not intentionally supporting white supremacy, but their textbook communicates that white people are more worth learning about than others. As a teacher, I use the textbook, but I supplement it with other lessons on how immigration and fights for civil rights have impacted our town.

I use a really wonderful Reading and Writing curriculum that promotes a real love of language arts. I really like it. However, our Reading curriculum suggests using Stone Fox as a read aloud. Stone Fox is well-known in young literature circles as portraying a false history of Native Americans and American settlement, and also portraying harmful stereotypes of Native Americans. Recently the Reading curriculum suggested an alternative book to read (Indian Shoes), and gave out curriculum to support it. I don't think anyone who created the curriculum purposefully chose a book that supports the idea that white people are more worthy of being a main character than others, but the very fact that they've amended that choice shows that publishers must actively fight against racism.

One more example. Racism and white supremacy have even affected the choices I have made as a teacher. Recently I reorganized my classroom library, placing all the picture books on a few shelves, and all the chapter series books on another shelf. I realized that 100% of my chapter series books, literally every single series had white protagonists. I did not have a single series that showed the experiences of children of color. Any of my students who looked at that shelf would be viewing the white supremacist idea that white children are more worthy of being written about and read. I am absolutely not a white supremacist. But by not actively fighting against racism as I made my book purchases, even I supported racist ideologies.

I do not think every publisher has to actively fight against racism and white supremacy. But I do think it's the responsibility of every human to do so.

 

[WayOfTheFourElements]

To keep this on topic, I'm going to focus on how when publishers do not actively fight racism and white supremacy they wind up supporting it.

If anyone wants to talk about how school choice, volunteer screening, state testing, and other systems embedded in the American education system are also super racist, feel free to PM me.

I teach 3rd Grade (8 - 9 year olds), and our standards focus on eras of settlement in local history. We work with the local Historical Society, who supply us with a free textbook and field trips. The Historical Society is a group of very, very nice older locals with a real passion for history. However, their textbooks focus 90% on white settlers. The coastal town I teach in was inhabited by Native Americans for thousands of years; Mexicans and Portuguese for hundreds of years, and had the very first fully integrated government housing during the shipbuilding era of World War II. But the Historical Society based their textbooks off of the records they have, and the records that survived history are mostly those of wealthy white inhabitants. The historical society is not intentionally supporting white supremacy, but their textbook communicates that white people are more worth learning about than others. As a teacher, I use the textbook, but I supplement it with other lessons on how immigration and fights for civil rights have impacted our town.

I use a really wonderful Reading and Writing curriculum that promotes a real love of language arts. I really like it. However, our Reading curriculum suggests using Stone Fox as a read aloud. Stone Fox is well-known in young literature circles as portraying a false history of Native Americans and American settlement, and also portraying harmful stereotypes of Native Americans. Recently the Reading curriculum suggested an alternative book to read (Indian Shoes), and gave out curriculum to support it. I don't think anyone who created the curriculum purposefully chose a book that supports the idea that white people are more worthy of being a main character than others, but the very fact that they've amended that choice shows that publishers must actively fight against racism.

One more example. Racism and white supremacy have even affected the choices I have made as a teacher. Recently I reorganized my classroom library, placing all the picture books on a few shelves, and all the chapter series books on another shelf. I realized that 100% of my chapter series books, literally every single series had white protagonists. I did not have a single series that showed the experiences of children of color. Any of my students who looked at that shelf would be viewing the white supremacist idea that white children are more worthy of being written about and read. I am absolutely not a white supremacist. But by not actively fighting against racism as I made my book purchases, even I supported racist ideologies.

I do not think every publisher has to actively fight against racism and white supremacy. But I do think it's the responsibility of every human to do so.

Thanks for the information.

 

[Bedrockgames]

Isn't suggesting that WotC not take a stance literally turning racism into a phantom that cannot be seen or touched?

No, I don't. I think encouraging companies to take moral stands is only good when they take the right moral stand, and because their ultimate goal is profit, and because they have far greater power than individuals, it isn't wise to make that the norm. They are also not good sources to get your morality from in general.

I'm an elementary school teacher, and the amount of work I have to do to actively get white supremacy and racism out of my curriculum is stunning and heartbreaking.

You have my commendations for being a teacher. But I do think you and I probably have very different views on this topic. I use this term for clarity (not as a pejorative), but I would say I am certainly liberal and left-leaning, but not woke. And again, emphasizing this is just for clarity (if someone can offer better language to describe this divide I am open to it). When I see a term like white supremacy used in this way, to go beyond meaning hate groups who believe in a political system of white supremacy, and expand it to mean vaguer things, I worry. I think when you use that term in that way, it takes away its potency for what it was originally intended. I spent five years as a kid in a part of California where one of the grand dragons of the KKK was active. I worry that when the term 'white supremacy' is invoked to refer to these kinds of groups there is increasing likelihood people dismiss it because it has been now used to refer to other things that are far less violent and dangerous. And I think the label being used to describe something like majority culture or the culture being predominantly white (or something to that effect), is too charged for that and leads us down a road where we might miss a lot of nuance. I can't comment on your curriculum, as I don't know it. I did study history though (I was a history major) and I suspect we have very different views on what kind of history would be 'racist history' (just based on the language I see you use).

 

[Bedrockgames]

I think we both agree that WotC should not produce works that promote harmful stereotypes. Our disagreement seems to be on how active WotC should be in fighting these stereotypes.

I think if we sat down and had a conversation we would find lots of areas we agree, but many where we disagree. We likely would agree they shouldn't produce harmful stereotypes. But we probably disagree on what those harmful stereotypes are.

In terms of WOTC being an active moral or poltical force, I really distrust large companies, or profit making institutions in general, with being forces of cultural change. You can never take out that money motive. And they have greater power than individuals. Over the years I've seen as companies have had greater influence and greater control over our personal lives for example, and I think that sort of thing is bad. I want companies to have less power in the culture, not more. When a company uses political movements as part of its messaging, I am always skeptical and always concerned about why they might be doing that.

I don't want to get my morality from the companies I buy products from. Nor do I want those companies advocating for things I believe in. I think they do far more harm than good. And I don't think they are sincere. When I buy coffee, I don't care who the makers of that coffee voted for. When I buy a book from an author, I am not especially interested in that author's political or social views (except in the ways those views appear in their works). I am not interested in this idea that I should be shaping the culture through commerce and what I choose to spend money on. That can be so easily manipulated.

 

[Umbran]

If other Asians are not disagreeing, then we, non-Asians have no choice but to accept that they speak for the majority.

We don't have to worry about whether they speak for the majority. We can consider, even if they are in the minority, that maybe we should take their concerns into account anyway.

 

[Umbran]

No, I don't. I think encouraging companies to take moral stands is only good when they take the right moral stand, and because their ultimate goal is profit, and because they have far greater power than individuals, it isn't wise to make that the norm. They are also not good sources to get your morality from in general.

Sorry, dude. Not taking a stance is itself a stance.