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<blockquote data-quote="Ogre Mage" data-source="post: 1308110" data-attributes="member: 3404">People of color and demi human racesI just wanted to add that as a person of color living in the United States I have always felt a kinship to demi-human races in spite of their &quot;white&quot; apperance.&nbsp; Because campaigns tend to be human centered, just like U.S. Culture is Eurocentric.&nbsp; While I certainly don't think demi-humans are designed to represent any particular real-life ethnic group, I think demi-human races have a conceptual similarity to people of color in the U.S.&nbsp; It's just that the most obvious difference in the &quot;real world&quot; is skin color.&nbsp; In D&amp;D this difference is replaced by pointy ears (elves), small tusks (half-orcs) and being extremely short (dwarves, halflings, gnomes).&nbsp; But in both cases, our physical traits and at times cultural differences place us outside the dominant culture.Perhaps you might be able to get your players to look at it from this angle.&nbsp; Think how a halfling must feel when living in an environment where most of the people are taller than him, and the mainstream culture is built around that standard.&nbsp; The tables and chairs are sized for taller people and everyone mistakes him for a child.&nbsp; The humans make many assumptions about him based on his race/physical appearance.&nbsp; I think there are definite similarities between that and what minorities experience in the U.S.&nbsp; In the words of En Vogue, &quot;Free your mind / and the rest will follow.&quot;</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Ogre Mage, post: 1308110, member: 3404"] [b]People of color and demi human races[/b] I just wanted to add that as a person of color living in the United States I have always felt a kinship to demi-human races in spite of their "white" apperance. Because campaigns tend to be human centered, just like U.S. Culture is Eurocentric. While I certainly don't think demi-humans are designed to represent any particular real-life ethnic group, I think demi-human races have a conceptual similarity to people of color in the U.S. It's just that the most obvious difference in the "real world" is skin color. In D&D this difference is replaced by pointy ears (elves), small tusks (half-orcs) and being extremely short (dwarves, halflings, gnomes). But in both cases, our physical traits and at times cultural differences place us outside the dominant culture. Perhaps you might be able to get your players to look at it from this angle. Think how a halfling must feel when living in an environment where most of the people are taller than him, and the mainstream culture is built around that standard. The tables and chairs are sized for taller people and everyone mistakes him for a child. The humans make many assumptions about him based on his race/physical appearance. I think there are definite similarities between that and what minorities experience in the U.S. In the words of En Vogue, "Free your mind / and the rest will follow." [/QUOTE]

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