What We Lose When We Eliminate Controversial Content

[Tonguez]

Personally, the fact that he rose from the shackles of slavery to the rarefied air of being a samurai makes his story all the more impressive. Excising that element from his story diminishes his accomplishments, IMHO. Those hardships doubtlessly shaped his mind and willpower as surely as whetstones shaped the edge of his katana.

Cutting that it would be like cutting out Spartacus’ time as a slave. Or Andrew Carnegie’s time working as a coal miner.

He gets to be a human fighter with background: outlander/former slave.
its notable that Yasuke was not a slave in Japan he was a retainer to the Daiymo Nobunaga and the first black skinned Nobunaga had seen. As far as Yasuke in Japan is concerned slavery was only relevant as backstory to how he had got from Mozambique with the Jesuits, it has next to nothing to do with his life as a Samurai.

Im reminded of Aḥmad ibn Faḍlān amongst the Varangians (vikings) or john Blanke the african Trumpeter in the Tudor Court of Henry VII, history is much more diverse than is often depicted and the accomplishments of people much more fascinating than possible historic footnotes

 

[Malmuria]

He gets to be a human fighter with background: outlander/former slave.

I feel like turning slavery into a set of skill/tool proficiencies trivializes it even further.

 

[bloodtide]

Life before 1980 was very different than to day in what is loosely called "the West"

That is my point. But most RPGs like D&D are set in a world roughly 500 years ago.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

He gets to be a human fighter with background: outlander/former slave.
its notable that Yasuke was not a slave in Japan he was a retainer to the Daiymo Nobunaga and the first black skinned Nobunaga had seen. As far as Yasuke in Japan is concerned slavery was only relevant as backstory to how he had got from Mozambique with the Jesuits, it has next to nothing to do with his life as a Samurai.

Im reminded of Aḥmad ibn Faḍlān amongst the Varangians (vikings) or john Blanke the african Trumpeter in the Tudor Court of Henry VII, history is much more diverse than is often depicted and the accomplishments of people much more fascinating than possible historic footnotes

I wouldn’t expect “former slave” to be something that has a major mechanical impact on running a PC. I would, however, expect it to be a meaningful part of roleplaying that character. The Japanese may not have cared Yasuke was a former slave- a debate for a different time and place- but I guarantee you it was a factor in how he carried himself, in his decision making, and even his mannerisms. If you spend significant time with almost anyone who was unlawfully incarcerated for a decade or two, you’re going to notice certain behaviors that set them apart. It changes them.

Some of that only changes with time and therapy. If at all.

So despite them both being “strangers in a strange land”, I would be profoundly surprised- and possibly disappointed- if someone played a PC based on Yasuke the same way as one based on Tom Cruise’ character from The Last Samurai.

 

[Jd Smith1]

I run historical campaigns as often as I can, and I run them period-accurate. We are currently finished session 35 of a Flames of Freedom campaign, in the tail end of 1777, and dumping on the Irish (we have an Irish player running an Irish PC), slavery, scalping, the entire settler/native drama in all its ugliness, and the casual brutality of what was basically a civil war wrapped up in a rebellion have all surfaced.

Frankly, history, while always ugly, offers more plot and color opportunities, because Fiction has to make sense; history does not.

 

[MGibster]

Was your brother-in-law unaware of Call of Duty as well?

We didn't talk about about video games at all and I don't think my neices even have a console of their own. Though they have little iPads with games and stuff. I'm sure he's aware they exist, but other than me, I think gaming and gamers are completely outside his social circle. It didn't help that the Games Workshop employee kept pestering him about what games he played and if he was coming to an upcoming Blood Bowl event. I walked away with a negative impression of Games Workshop stores and I'm the one who wanted to go.

 

[CleverNickName]

I’ve messed up in the past, and I’ll probably do so in the future. When I get called out for doing it wrong, I listen.

This is the way.

 

[Tonguez]

I wouldn’t expect “former slave” to be something that has a major mechanical impact on running a PC. I would, however, expect it to be a meaningful part of roleplaying that character. The Japanese may not have cared Yasuke was a former slave- a debate for a different time and place- but I guarantee you it was a factor in how he carried himself, in his decision making, and even his mannerisms. If you spend significant time with almost anyone who was unlawfully incarcerated for a decade or two, you’re going to notice certain behaviors that set them apart. It changes them.

Some of that only changes with time and therapy. If at all.

So despite them both being “strangers in a strange land”, I would be profoundly surprised- and possibly disappointed- if someone played a PC based on Yasuke the same way as one based on Tom Cruise’ character from The Last Samurai.

I dunno, Panglima Awang (Commander Awang), better known to the world as Enrique de Malacca is celebrated in Indonesia and the Phillipines as the first person to circumnavigate the world.
After the Portuguese conquered Malacca in 1511, Magellan took on a local as a slave who was given the name Enrique. Enrique served as pilot between the Spice Islands and then was taken to Lisbon. Later he was enlisted in Magellan’s voyage around the world between 1519 and 1521.
Magellan was killed during the Battle of Mactan, Cebu, in 1521, and in his will granted Enrique freedom. Enrique is belived to have returned back to Malacca and was recognised as a datu (chief)

Anyway Panglima is remembered as a mariner, explorer and adventurer, being a slave is incidental but it is not his identity.

 

[Dannyalcatraz]

Anyway Panglima is rememnered as a mariner, explorer and adventurer, being a slave is incidental but it is not his identity.

NONE of those things are his identity. They are just facts about him. Excising a fact about him that happens to be unpleasant does no one any favors.

If you could actually interview the man himself, he might tell you his time as a slave tempered him like steel and was instrumental in driving him to achieve. Or he might say it was something he excised from himself, allowing him to rise, unhindered.

Just like the samurai we’ve been discussing, I find that his enslavement underscores and amplifies his later achievements. And I will say the same of anyone who rose out of slavery to make a great and lasting impression on history. Even if, like Cotton Mather’s slave Onesimus (for example), their greatest achievement occurred while in servitude. Without him, smallpox would have killed a LOT more people in early colonial America.

By the same token, imagine excising the fact of slave ownership from the histories of America’s founding fathers. Knowing they had this darker aspect in no way diminishes their actual achievements, and clarifies who they were and how they thought.

 

[Mesero]

The “Race for Africa“ may have been later, but colonial exploitation and interference in the local cultures by missionaries had been under way in Africa a century before Yasuke was taken to Japan as a bodyguard to a Jesuit missionary. So… there’s your colonialism being what takes Yasuke to Japan.

You do seem to have very broad definition of colonialism when you already count interference with local culture and missionary work (when it is peaceful).

If you consider that already problematic and remove it you would end up with a bunch if highly isolationist, borderlining xenophobic, realms with no interaction with each other.
Elf kingdom, dwarf kingdom, human kingdom 1, human kingdom 2, both modeled after real life societies often separated by quite some distance and time which both being culturally pure and don't influencing each other.

Thats how RPGs used to be and I am glad most moved away from that.

And I agree with @Imaro that it is strange how everyone jumped on the "slave aspect" of Yasuke immediately, so much so that they did not even notice that as far as we know he was not a slave and it is unknown if he has ever been one.