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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Hussar" data-source="post: 8531741" data-attributes="member: 22779">Ok, having took a step back and a deep breath, let me see if I can make my point without getting up on a soapbox and making everyone feel defensive.  I'm trying here.  Whether I succeed or not remains to be seen and, since this is going to be a bit lengthy and personal, I beg your indulgence.I totally get the response over things like "savage" or "primitive".  It's a perfectly reasonable response.  "I don't mean it in a racist way at all and I'm using the word properly, what's the problem here?" is a 100% understandable and reasonable position to take.  I get that.  And getting annoyed when someone accuses you, even obliquely, of being culturally insensitive or even outright racist, is, again, perfectly understandable.  I really don't think anyone was being racist when they coined "Savage Sword of Conan" even in the slightest.  But, and here's the but, it really doesn't matter what the intent is.  When you've been on the receiving end of poor treatment for years and years and years (or generations even), whether someone intends to be racist or not doesn't really look any different.  If people continuously tread on your toes, after a while, whether it's an accident or not doesn't change the fact that it bloody well hurts.Bear with me a moment and see if I can make this really clear with a personal annecdote.  I've lived in Asia most of my adult life.  Many years ago, I lived in South Korea for about five years.  While I lived there, it was a very common occurrence that, upon seeing a foreigner (and, at over six feet tall and ... built for comfort shall we say... I do stand out in a crowd) people would begin screaming "Hello" at you at the top of their lungs.  I'm not talking about children mind you.  These were 20 and 30 something individuals who thought it was the height of humor to shout hello at me.  Repeatedly.  From across the street sometimes.  Until you were out of sight.Now, the first time it happened, it was kinda funny.  I laughed, said hello back and moved on.  The third time it happened it was less funny.  The three hundredth time it happened it was about as funny as a kidney punch and I had to constantly (and unsuccessfully sometimes) rein myself in and not begin screaming back in their faces.  It soured me so much on the country to the point that I started dreading leaving my apartment because I knew, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that I would have to run the gauntlet of screaming people EVERY SINGLE TIME.Were these people racists?  Nope.  They weren't doing it to hurt me.  They weren't malicious.  They were completely oblivious to my feelings, frankly.  When I asked my adult students about this, they were shocked that it bothered me.  Why should it bother me?  They were just being friendly.  I should just sack up and not complain.  I was the problem.THAT'S what othering is.  That's why these sorts of things, like the language used in the game are so important.  It's not about you.  It's not about intentions.  It's about the fact that for far, far too long, people were completely oblivious to the harm they were doing.  Not maliciously. Not intentionally.  But, again, when you're on the receiving end, over and over and over again, intent stops mattering very much.  You just want it to stop.  Now, I've waffled on far too long, but, hopefully folks can read this and maybe understand why this is important.  It's not about punishment or calling out bad behavior.  It really doesn't matter.  It's about making it stop.  It's about stopping hurting people.  And that's what things like the orc descriptions and all the other largely until very recently, unexamined elements of the genre are all about.  It's about wanting to be a part of the community while at the same time wanting that community to stop hurting me.</blockquote>

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