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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Faolyn" data-source="post: 9552181" data-attributes="member: 6915329">It's not that orcs are deliberate mockeries of real people (except in the infamous Gazetteer #10 from way back when). It's that the descriptions of orcs have used the exact same terminology that racists have used to describe people of color. Like, in the 1e MM and PHB, it talked about how some small percentage of half-orcs could "pass" for an ugly human. This is identical to how people of mixed heritage are often described as being able to "pass" as white. The 1e MM goes on to say that they're particularly disgusting because of their coloration--which includes being brown. In the interest of fairness, this is because it "highlights" their pink snouts--which makes absolutely no sense; you wouldn't call this disgusting:[ATTACH=full]392173[/ATTACH](random cat pic taken from reddit)Best case scenario, he's talking about poop brown instead of human skin color brown, but still, it ties in to how many racists automatically think brown skin is inherently ugly.  (I do not want to get into a "was Gygax racist?" tangent here. The only thing that's important for this discussion is the language, not his views on actual, real-life people.)Even the 5e Volo's book talks about how orcs can be "domesticated" into acting like civilized people, an idea that many white people thought--and still think--about non-white people. "You talk so well for a [insert ethnicity here]." (A while ago, when the Radiant Citadel adventure compilation came out, I saw at least one person--can't remember who--saying (paraphrasing) "it's good that they're getting minority writers and editors, but I'd rather that the book be written by accomplished writers." As if someone can't be brown and also accomplished.)Orcs and other evil humanoids tend to live in "tribal" societies, even when they logically shouldn't. Hobgoblins in 5e live in tribal bands, even though by their description they should have empires. But tribal is "savage" and "less civilized"--and nearly always referring to non-white people. So it doesn't matter if hobgoblins are actually red or blue or whatever they are; they're described as lesser.So again, orcs aren't supposed to be parodies or adaptation of Black people or African societies or anything like that. It's the type of language used.</blockquote>

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