D&D General RA Salvatore Wants To Correct Drizzt’s Racist Tropes

In an interview with Polygon, the author talks about how the drow are currently being redefined in D&D, and how he wants to be part of that process.

”But on the other hand, if the drow are being portrayed as evil, that’s a trope that has to go away, be buried under the deepest pit, and never brought out again. I was unaware of that. I admit it. I was oblivious.

Drow are now split into (at least) three types — the familiar Udadrow of Menzoberranzan, the arctic-themed Aevendrow, and the jungle-themed Lorendrow. Salvatore's new novel, Starlight Enclave, helps to expand the drows' role in the narrative.

D&D’s Drizzt books were built on racist tropes. R.A. Salvatore wants to change that

‘If the drow are being portrayed as evil, that’s a trope that has to go away’

www.polygon.com

In 2020 WotC made a public statement about how they would be treating drow and orcs going forward -- "Throughout the 50-year history of D&D, some of the peoples in the game—orcs and drow being two of the prime examples—have been characterized as monstrous and evil, using descriptions that are painfully reminiscent of how real-world ethnic groups have been and continue to be denigrated. That’s just not right, and it’s not something we believe in. "

Commitment to Diversity | Dungeons & Dragons

D&D continues to be made as diverse as possible with the reminder that only a diverse group of adventurers can overcome obstacles.

dnd.wizards.com

 

[Zardnaar]

Easy enough to answer: Everyone was porking EVERYONE pretty indiscriminately when it comes to Race.

Which is why nearly every single White Person who is SO SURE that there's nothing but White People in their background comes back with 10-30% African. Doesn't matter if they're from America, Europe, Australia, South Africa. Rome was so huge and so multicultural that people's ancestries in Europe, Western Asia, and Northern Africa are so intermingled it's hard to sort out.

Pretty much. I'm not a one drop type of guy it's all absurd to me. Things are a bit different here the old joke is things will be sorted out in the bedsheets.

Don't shoot me.

 

[Don Durito]

I remember once being sent an email by some genealogical group who wanted me to pay them for family tree services. They said they had good evidence I was descended from a particular roman emperor (I can't remember which one).

I wrote back bemused, saying given the sheer length of time, and the number of generations since, I was, like almost anyone with European ancestry, probably related to most of them.

 

[MGibster]

As an undergraduate, one of the favorite ways for us students to critique an academic paper was to argue that the author was biased. And then the professor would ask, "In what way is the author biased?" A lot of times students did have the answer to that. Can academics be biased? Hell-to-the-yeah. But it's not enough to point out that scholars can sometimes be biased. Well all know that. You gotta put together a specific argument showing bias.

 

[Zardnaar]

I'm not read in this area at all. Does this seem like a reasonable take? https://www.jstor.org/stable/40023593?seq=2#metadata_info_tab_contents

Pretty much it. Simple take is empires are inherently unstable and will collapse whenever internal problems or someone with a bigger stick turns up.

Generally I you have to use force to expand/retain them which usually means they're inherently unstable.

 

[Steampunkette]

That link from Professor Kennedy is obvious good sense but I don't see what it has to do with the current discussion.

Secondary Subdiscussion on Rome's racist attitudes. Coming from a secondary discussion on why black skin is equated to evilness.

 

[Charlaquin]

It's from The Thundercats, Charlaquin. Oh, you've broken my heart. I'm not mad at you. Just disappointed.

In my defense, I was negative two years old when ThunderCats ended. Growing up I only saw it on very occasional Cartoon Network re-runs.

 

[MGibster]

In my defense, I was negative two years old when ThunderCats ended. Growing up I only saw it on very occasional Cartoon Network re-runs.

You reminded me of my age. Now I'm mad at you!

 

[Don Durito]

Secondary Subdiscussion on Rome's racist attitudes. Coming from a secondary discussion on why black skin is equated to evilness.

Well I get that. But she's arguing that 1) we should study ancient attitudes about ethnicity and 2) they were not the same as modern ones.

No one has disputed that.

 

[Steampunkette]

I'm not read in this area at all. Does this seem like a reasonable take? https://www.jstor.org/stable/40023593?seq=2#metadata_info_tab_contents

Pretty accurate, yeah. They had social biases based on race and ethnicity. But it didn't reach the level of modern Racism with a capital R.

 

[Levistus's_Leviathan]

You reminded me of my age. Now I'm mad at you!

When did Thundercats end?
*asks Google
*gets answer: 1988
*thanks Google
*does a bit of mental math
I guess that I was -13 then. No wonder I didn't get the reference.
Edit: Fixed typo that said "33" instead of "13"