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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Mercurius" data-source="post: 8500028" data-attributes="member: 59082">I have no idea what ethnicity your kids are, but I think it is valuable for ALL kids to understand our history of racism, at least once they are old enough to process it. Why is that controversial?Now I'm confused. Where did I imply that your kids should need you to protect them? I don't see how this follows as a response to anything said. I'm merely saying that I think a parent should have more of a say in what their kid can read than a governmental agency, or some approved list or section of the library. Again, I'm not really sure how you're connecting this to anything I've said. And I'm not clear what your suggestion is with regards to Howard and Lovecraft in a public library. You want a special section for all books that don't fit today's standards? And whose standards? Who decides?I'm not saying that I do. What I'm saying is that authors draw from real ideas for a variety of reasons, and often simply because they're interesting or make for fun roleplaying.For instance, an author might create a culture that is loosely based on the Aztec empire at its worst (or how it is stereotypically understood to have been), complete with child sacrifices and head-ball games. That doesn't mean the author is mocking the culture of all Central American peoples; it could be that they just think it involves fun ideas for a game setting.See my point above. Creators draw from a wide range of ideas, and put bits and pieces together in different ways that serve their purposes. Of course they'll be influenced by common and/or stereotypical conceptions that might be wrong, but how can it be otherwise? And if they're creating a culture that is only meant to signify itself, why can't it have elements of real-world cultures even if they are negative portrayals? If that Aztec-influenced culture I mentioned above is ruled by an evil god who seeks to quench his blood-lust and his culture is entirely about this, why does that have to be considered a castigation of Central American peoples? Why can't it simply be an evil fantasy empire with flavors drawn from Mesoamerica?Are these open-ended questions that you're entertaining, or are you just be contrarian to whatever I happen to say, even if it is in basic agreement with something you said?I was acknowledging that I can see how primarily using Maori actors to depict orcs could further the perspective that orcs are stand-ins for non-white people. And as far as I can tell, Tolkien did not depict orcs in a singular way - they were varied in terms of skin color and appearance. But as you said, it stood out that all the Maori in the film were orcs (afaict).</blockquote>

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