D&D General New WOTC racism allegations regarding Hadozee and Spelljammer

[payn]

Some folks go out of their way to miss the point.

 

[Haplo781]

I must have missed all those minstrel accusations when the core book with this halfling image came out.

Sometimes someone with a lute is just a iconic bard.

1. Halflings aren't literal monkeys
2. Halflings aren't uplifted animals
3. Halflings aren't former slaves

 

[Charlaquin]

Wow. I noticed this on twitter and at first I thought it was just bad form to have a race that has a slavery narrative. But looking at parts of the description people are posting...wow. This is Nu-TSR level stuff...

In fairness, the second image (the one with the stuff about elves) is not from the book. That appears to be from a wiki, which is describing the 3e Hadozee lore. The new lore is still not acceptable though.

 

[Ixal]

1. Halflings aren't literal monkeys
2. Halflings aren't uplifted animals
3. Halflings aren't former slaves

And? Hadozee are not monkeys or even real world people either but a fictional simean species. That they are uplifted is basically standard and nothing different than "a god made them like they are" which is the origin story of nearly(?) all D&D creatures.
Which also makes everyone slave to the gods when you apply the same strict definition of what a slave is to other species.

 

[Steampunkette]

So... two big things I wanna touch on, here.

1) As a writer of Fantasy and Sci-fi materials it's a person's job to create allegory. To make things that are reminiscent of real life that people can hook their perceptions onto. Pretty much everything you've ever seen written is a combination of ideas the writer had and the society the writer lived in. Your biases will get into your work whether you like it or not because it's part of your experience and your perspective. It's why Cyberpunk is an anticapitalist narrative about a corporate future dystopia. Why every fantasy setting is a 'crappy reality' compared to a lost "Golden Age" of 'real magic' and stuff.

Which means making monkey people who are pain resistant and are elevated from animals by slave-masters being freed by someone who would otherwise own them is not a good look. It speaks to the allegory, to the biases, etc.

2) There's this idea that the controversy will "Sell more books." ... to who? Who looks at "Holy crap this has got some racist stuff in it. Look at this!" and goes "Wow. That's so controversial that it has racist overtones. I need to get a copy!" ? And why would WotC think they'd sell more to that bizarre group of people than to people who aren't enticed by racism..?

 

[payn]

And? Hadozee are not monkeys or even real world people either but a fictional simean species. That they are uplifted is basically standard and nothing different than "a god made them like they are" which is the origin story of nearly(?) all D&D creatures.
Which also makes everyone slave to the gods when you apply the same strict definition of what a slave is to other species.

This is whataboutism isn't going to work for folks who are offended by Hadozee, which isn't a stretch by any means.

 

[grimslade]

I must have missed all those minstrel accusations when the core book with this halfling image came out.

Sometimes someone with a lute is just a iconic bard.

Not a minstrel show pose. Also just terrible art.
It is not the lute. The hadozee art uses a pose that was used as stereotypical racist shorthand. You don't see it. Most likely the D&D editors didn't either. It does not mean it isn't there.

 

[Ruin Explorer]

Which also makes everyone slave to the gods when you apply the same strict definition of what a slave is to other species.

This sentence is a perfect example of a very high-effort attempt to avoid a very obvious point lol.

 

[HammerMan]

I didn’t notice it myself (mostly since I think of them more as squirts and the flying memoir thing from avatar) but once I see it… boom can’t unsee it

 

[Ixal]

I didn’t notice it myself (mostly since I think of them more as squirts and the flying memoir thing from avatar) but once I see it… boom can’t unsee it

You mean, once people told you what you have to see.