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Message: <blockquote data-quote="redrick" data-source="post: 7326104" data-attributes="member: 6777696">White males dominate a lot of things, even things they didn't create. (See rock and roll and the blues.) D&D, and table-top roleplaying in general, originated in a time when the United States was even more segregated than it is now. The source material that inspired it, fantasy fiction, was also dominated by white males, and steeped in western European mythology. Not to mention that much of the source material ranged from the slightly racist and slightly sexist to the incredibly racist and sexist. (Looking at you, HP Lovecraft.) Honestly, much of the Appendix N stuff is hard to read today without putting a great deal of distance on my part. (I read Conan stories in a foreign language.)Also worth adding that, just because the hobby is dominated by white males, there are still plenty of people of color who participate and have participated. Ta-Nehisi Coates wrote a great deal about playing D&D as a youngster in Baltimore.As far as to why, in 2018, the hobby might not be welcoming to women and people of color — it might be difficult for a group of, according to the pole, predominantly white males to speculate. I can say what makes me, as a white male, feel welcome in the hobby:Most of the source fiction features white males. It's super easy to see myself as the hero of one of those stories. (5e cites recommended fiction featuring men and women of color, so that's a step in the right direction!)In the older editions of D&D, most of the artwork featured protagonists with light skin, and lots of the women were featured in a titillating manner. (Again, 5e makes a huge step forward on this front.)When I show up at a gaming table, I can bet that most of the participants will be white men like me.That last one is a big one. I believe that there is a snowball effect with exclusion and inclusion. As long as most of the participants are of a certain group, they will naturally include participants also of that group and, intentionally or not, exclude participants not of that group. We have to work hard to overcome that inertia.</blockquote>

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