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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Mercurius" data-source="post: 8499845" data-attributes="member: 59082">But I think you need more than that to assign the word "racism." You can't just see yellow and think red (to use my color analogy).For example, if a world-builder is creating a tropical jungle culture, and the inhabitants happen to be dark-skinned (which makes sense, as they are equatorial), it doesn't automatically mean that they are a stand-in for real world Amazonians or Africans or Papua New Guineans. Or if a tribe of plains warriors rides horses and wears feathers, it doesn't mean the author is "really talking about" Lakota people. But it might mean that they made an association as a starting point, which is understandable.I think there's also the "kewl" factor. Ed Greenwood presumably included Mulhorand as Egypt because, well, ancient Egypt was really cool. This isn't as much lazy or even convenient as it is saying, "I dig me some ancient Egypt." Now is it then his responsibility to make Mulhorand as accurate to Egypt as possible (and whose version of Egypt? as it was remembered by the Greeks or a modern Afrocentric interpretation or perhaps the indigenous esoterica of Abd'El Hakim Awyan? Or can Greenwood just take Egypt as his basic inspiration and make of it what he will, for the purpose of a fun setting for D&D?Sure, but I can't imagine that this would ever be the case, except for perhaps a brief moment in time. There are (thankfully) far more influences that a young person will encounter over the course of their early lives.I personally would prefer this stay to the purview of parents. I just see too much of a slippery slope problem occurring. And of course, different parents have different ideas as to how, or to what degree, their children should be protected. I would also put more emphasis on proving the quality of education so that, even if parents consciously or subconsciously try to perpetuate their own biases (whatever they are), a child will be exposed to a wide range of ideas through their education, and gradually learn to think for themselves.On the other hand, these are also potentially valuable learning opportunities. But I hear you, at least for younger children. By the time they get to high school age, I personally think more open attitude is warranted.Don't forget that Middle-earth was essentially pre-historic Europe and iirc, orcs were varied in appearance. I don't want to re-litigate Tolkien, but I think some differentiation is needed. To whatever degree racism existed in his work, it was far less than Lovecraft or Howard, and I think "less horrible" overly emphasizes the degree to which racism did exist in his works. That said, I agree that Jackson probably shouldn't have only or mostly used Maori actors for his orcs.</blockquote>

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