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. "

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[Umbran]

Please, if you really want to help for the end of the hate and the intolerance you shouldn't forget we have to defend the respect for the human dignity, the core of our rights as citizens. Without this the rebel against the authority can become a new tyrant. Nietzsche warned who fights against monsters should take care to not become one.

That sounds like a veiled attempt to bypass the paradox of tolerance. Sorry, but that doesn't work.

 

[lyle.spade]

I am now waiting for the rage mob to come for Aliens...after all, the xenomorphs are portrayed as all evil....and that color! We ought to demand apologies from all involved.

 

[Libertad]

I feel that the problem with drow is that their existence in the most popular D&D settings posits in which racism based on skin color is not only a thing, it's a thing that's justified 99% of the time. In Forgotten Realms and Greyhawk the drow are the only major elven subrace that is written as uniformly dark-skinned and depending on the writer either biologically inclined to evil or hopelessly under the thumb of Lolth and destined for evil. People like Drizz't are literal one in a million exceptions to the rule. The other elven subraces such as Faerun's moon and sun elves are described with pale and tan complexions. There are dark-skinned non-drow elves such as some portrayals of wild elves and wood elves, but they aren't anywhere near as common an option for players or have as much lore written up about them as the high elven equivalents.

There's also the fact that the Forgotten Realms setting and the Complete Book of Elves imposed a Curse of Ham style affliction on the drow elves. When they rejected Corellon and rebelled against their cousins, they were given black skin to mark their wicked natures. In the 4th Edition of FR drow who redeemed themselves reverted to a more human brown complexion.

While 4e FR and CBoE are both widely loathed, the fact that such books were written in the 90s and Aughts and not the 60s and 70s shows just how slow and resistant to progressive change TSR/Wizards can be.

I don't think that getting rid of drow is the answer. Having them be another elven group who can be good or evil rather than uniformly evil is a good means of rectifying past mistakes. Also retconning that stupid Curse of Ham thing. Also more portrayals of dark-skinned elves that aren't drow.

Edit: As for the comparison of drow to black people...well, there's the Curse of Ham thing I mentioned above, but people outside D&D subcultures have noticed inferences. The wildly popular South Park video game the Stick of Truth had the kids LARPing as two different factions: the Kingdom of Koopa Keep (read the initials) lead by Eric Cartmann fighting the drow elves lead by Kyle.

Also Jim Ward, one of TSR's luminaries, had an interview with RPGPundit and Venger Satanis where he claimed that drow are black people in his view. Granted he's a reactionary crank telling other reactionary cranks what they want to hear, but it's far from an isolated incident.

 

[Steampunkette]

This is a consequentialist definition of racism. While I agree that the discussion of how various groups are affected by media tropes and the like is an important one as well, I have a problem with the use of the word racist as a blank slate equal definition to all actors involved. If one is going to make an assertion the any specific person is racist (and im not saying you or anyone else here did) Intent is crucial to establish. Keep in mind that when discussing racism, biases, prejudices, we are using powerful words that can have a profound affect on peoples lives.

... That is certainly a take on racism.

The alternative is you could recognize that subconscious biases also exist and pretending that the only kind of bigotry that "Counts" is when it's standing on your lawn next to a burning cross is self-limiting at -best-.

I'm sure the people who made Ace Ventura Pet Detective didn't think they were being Transphobic Bigots when they made an entire police precinct and football team and -dolphin- wretch and gag and feel dirtied when they learned that Lieutenant Einhorn (hur hur, one horn!) was transgender.

But it doesn't mean it wasn't transphobic AF.


Seriously. Watch this scene and tell me it isn't -ridiculously- transphobic from the start when Ace calls the Lieutenant's gender into question. Remember, it only "Counts" as transphobic if they were intentionally and willfully trying to be hateful rather than just, y'know, using trans women as a punchline. Show your work on separating out authorial intent from audience presumption!

Intent is great and all. But it's not required to do harm. Accidentally shooting someone might be less grievous than shooting someone intentionally, but they still got SHOT.

 

[ersatzphil]

Yeah, because no one could possibly in good faith ever make a connection between the drow and black people...(but more importantly, the bigger issue that dark skinned races are almost universally portrayed as evil, which aligns with decades of racist tropes in real life)

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I actually vividly remember coming across that depiction in the 2e supplement "The Drow of the Underdark", and thinking to my 13 year old self, "...that's completely wrong. The drow aren't African, they have jet black skin."

 

[LuisCarlos17f]

Sorry, sometimes I can be clumpsy to explain my ideas, even talking my first language. I will try it again.

If you want to know who really is fighting against the injustice or he is other wolf with sheep's clothing then you have to watch his reactions when somebody dares to show disagremeent.

And I have seen lots of toxic people abusing the fallacy of false middle point.

Do you remember the X-Men comics? The mutants suffer fear and intolerance, but Magneto chose the wrong path and like this the thigs weren't help to go better. The sentinel robots were created to defend the helpless masses against those who a stronger power, but they were monsters, and a menace for innocent people.

I am asking to have enough good sense to not replace a poison a other. We have to promote the mercy and forgiveness. We don't need only mutual respect, but for a better coexistence we also need mutual trust, and here everybody has to cooperate. And we need some pieces of diplomacy. Saying alway "this is your fault" is not going to help to fix this.

The rules about politically correct in 2021 are different, and they can change again in the future.

* Even with the best of the intentions fictional races could become pejorative nicknames of real people. I remember when some child in the class was "x character from certain cartoon".

 

[Dausuul]

It amazes me that people get hung up about supposed stereotyping of made-up species and cultures. Take a step back and think on that: doesn't it seem absurd to lose any sleep at all over something that is completely fictional? Can people no longer tell the difference?

<followed by 800-word essay about completely fictional stuff>

Yeah, okay.

 

[Steampunkette]

I actually vividly remember coming across that depiction in the 2e supplement "The Drow of the Underdark", and thinking to my 13 year old self, "...that's completely wrong. The drow aren't African, they have jet black skin."

Yeah! Drow are jet black and should look more like this:

... Oh wait.

 

[lyle.spade]

Yeah! Drow are jet black and should look more like this:

... Oh wait.

Huh? That's not a Drow....that's a real person. The Drow aren't real.

 

[Mirtek]

" I was unaware of that. I admit it. I was oblivious."

Yeah, sure ... I mean we need to give this guy a break, he was only writing Drizzt novels and one of the major forces behind defining drow and drow culture for a couple of decades. Hardly any time to notice

At leas he wasn't using his popularity to jealously sideline and bury various non-evil drow cultures during those years because they were from other authors and not him. ups