Race

[Gnarlo]

Very diverse mix of races in the groups I was part of in college; last "minority" in one of my groups was an Okinawan woman about 6 years ago. Since then, it's just been us pale, washed-out guys and gals of European decent.

Trying to get bragging rights on having a Persian gal play, but I just can't get my wife to pick up the dice

/gnarlo!

 

[Buttercup]

I live in the lily white midwest. For a while I had a player who was a Native American, but other than that, everyone has been white. Heck, in my city the nonwhite population is around 10%, so people of color aren't exactly thick on the ground, let alone gamers of color.

Not that I and my group wouldn't welcome a person of color to the table. We would. If we could find one.

 

[fusangite]

I live in a city that is 60-70% white; in my 22 years of gaming, I have gamed with exactly one non-white person. Unless you count me -- my mother is black, I grew up in a black family but the genetic lottery has made me look whiter than all but my whitest friends. Actually, the one non-white gamer I have worked with is also of mixed race but she looks about as non-asian as I look black. Even if I were black in any meaningful way (which I assure you I am not), my games over-represent white people beyond what any local population demographics could account for. While my circle of friends is also massively over-representative of white people (90%+) it is not as massively over-representative as my gaming circle. Of course, like any good white leftist, I feel very guilty about all this.

Now, to clarify, I'm not talking about ethnicity here; I'm talking about race. I don't really think the specific ethnic European backgrounds of players can count as "races" -- at least in North America discourse where race has, perhaps, a different meaning than in Europe.

 

[Sixchan]

I live in a city that is 60-70% white; in my 22 years of gaming, I have gamed with exactly one non-white person. Unless you count me -- my mother is black, I grew up in a black family but the genetic lottery has made me look whiter than all but my whitest friends. Actually, the one non-white gamer I have worked with is also of mixed race but she looks about as non-asian as I look black. Even if I were black in any meaningful way (which I assure you I am not), my games over-represent white people beyond what any local population demographics could account for. While my circle of friends is also massively over-representative of white people (90%+) it is not as massively over-representative as my gaming circle. Of course, like any good white leftist, I feel very guilty about all this.

Now, to clarify, I'm not talking about ethnicity here; I'm talking about race. I don't really think the specific ethnic European backgrounds of players can count as "races" -- at least in North America discourse where race has, perhaps, a different meaning than in Europe.

Well, as a European, I go with the Caucasoid/Mongoloid/Negroid split, followed by subracial splits e.g Nordic/Alpine/Mediterrainian for Caucasians.

 

[fusangite]

Sixchan says,

Well, as a European, I go with the Caucasoid/Mongoloid/Negroid split, followed by subracial splits e.g Nordic/Alpine/Mediterrainian for Caucasians.

While that's what the North American model is based on, race here is less based on 19th century science (which seems to be the structure you're talking about) and more on a kind of incipient caste system which has grown up, in different forms, all over the continent. Race, in North American discourse, falls somewhere between the construct you're talking about and the ethnic construction others seem to be talking about. I'm also a little lost as to where South Asian (Indian, Pakistani, Sri Lankan) people fit into your model. In North America, the fact that such people are non-White completely trumps the fact that they are Aryan/Caucasian. Blackness in the Americas is a horrendously complex, problematic and contested concept; in North America, it extends considerably beyond the "negroid" physical type whereas in Latin America, it is a subset of this physical/racial type.

Anyway, academic BS aside, to most North Americans, there exist the following races: Asian (East Asian people), Indian (South Asian people), Black (*), Hispanic (Mixed race people from Latin America and NOT people from Spain who are, of course, White), White (*) and Amerindian (unmixed indigenous people from anywhere in the Americas and mixed-race indigenous people from north of the Rio Grande). While physical features and lineal/genetic descent are major factors in category formation, they are not the whole story but I won't even begin attempting to define the other factors here.

PS. Great sig by the way. My mantra when entering a difficult social situation is often "I am number twelve. I am left-handed. Flapjacks are my favourite food."

 

[storyguide3]

In 23 years of gaming (God, do I feel old), I can remember only two members of visible minorities in my groups. One was an East Indian guy when I was in High School and the other was a Black/Dutch mixed-race fellow from Curacao during university.

Having said that, St. John's was far less diverse when I began gaming than it is now, and most of the people I have gamed with over the years were friends from high schooll/university. I would be interested to see the makeup of gaming "cliques" that have formed here in more recent years.

Now, if my suspicions are correct about some of the loons I've DM'ed for in the past, I have had a fair number of extraterrestrials in my groups. I really hope that was it.

 

[Sixchan]

Sixchan says,



While that's what the North American model is based on, race here is less based on 19th century science (which seems to be the structure you're talking about) and more on a kind of incipient caste system which has grown up, in different forms, all over the continent. Race, in North American discourse, falls somewhere between the construct you're talking about and the ethnic construction others seem to be talking about. I'm also a little lost as to where South Asian (Indian, Pakistani, Sri Lankan) people fit into your model. In North America, the fact that such people are non-White completely trumps the fact that they are Aryan/Caucasian. Blackness in the Americas is a horrendously complex, problematic and contested concept; in North America, it extends considerably beyond the "negroid" physical type whereas in Latin America, it is a subset of this physical/racial type.

Anyway, academic BS aside, to most North Americans, there exist the following races: Asian (East Asian people), Indian (South Asian people), Black (*), Hispanic (Mixed race people from Latin America and NOT people from Spain who are, of course, White), White (*) and Amerindian (unmixed indigenous people from anywhere in the Americas and mixed-race indigenous people from north of the Rio Grande). While physical features and lineal/genetic descent are major factors in category formation, they are not the whole story but I won't even begin attempting to define the other factors here.

PS. Great sig by the way. My mantra when entering a difficult social situation is often "I am number twelve. I am left-handed. Flapjacks are my favourite food."

I generally don't touch on the Indian part, because it differs from area to area. Western Indians and Pakistanis have more Caucasoid traits than the easterners do, for example. Of course, there is that fourth group, "Australoids", which certainly helps with classification.

Normally I refer to a particular site on raceial myths, but the site is unavailable, so here's an earlier version with the Wayback Machine. Exploding Racial Myths

PS: More than once I've introduced myself as "The New Number Two".

 

[Agamon]

Hmmm. I never thought of this before, I never found race or ethnicity an important factor for a gamer (although, I'll admit that the first time I saw a female gamer it confused me somewhat...don't worry, I've long since gotten over that ).

One exception would be the language barrier. I play D&D with 2 Native Americans and an asian and know 2 blacks that play Magic and Heroclix. I do have a bit of problem with the French and Dutch guys I play D&D with, especially when Martin (who's French) is DMing and does his German accent in his French-accented English...can't understand a thing he says.

 

[Afrodyte]

Sixchan> I have looked over that site, and there are a few things that I have noticed about it:

1. The author of that site uses antiquated data and has not looked into recent DNA research regarding the myth of biological races. Since he has not updated his theory or the information he uses even to include ideas that are contrary to his own, I cannot take him seriously as a scientist.

2. The people who agree with him classify themselves as Caucasian and share his political views. I'm not saying it means anything. I'm just saying it's interesting.

3. The author makes no attempt to seek for sources of error and misinformation. To claim that what he does is science is untrue. My personal feeling is that he just wants to raise the hackles on what he considers leftist PC-Nazi liberals.

4. Although the author claims to be unbiased, the way he presents his information and the tone of his essays prove otherwise.

So, I don't really take what he says seriously. If you want to see some real scientific exploration into the biological basis of race (if any), I point you to these sites:

A PBS site that deals with race

Is Race Only Skin-deep?. I find this article interesting because it, like any truly scientific article, allows for the possibility of error and misinterpretation of data, which the man on his Racial Myths website does not.

An article by the Scientific American on race and DNA. You can't get much more reputable than an actual scientific magazine. However, (and this is what gets my respect), this article does not negate the possibility of political agendas seeping into the scientific community, even for their seemingly benign purposes.

 

[jgbrowning]

especially when Martin (who's French) is DMing and does his German accent in his French-accented English...can't understand a thing he says.

hehe gods that brings back memories of India.

It's rather hard to understand and thick accented hindi speaker speaking in the queen's english.

At least for this texan.


hehe, it was great fun though. amazing how much you can communicate with a few shared words and lots of smiling and gesturing.

joe b.