So THAT's why Regdar gets no love...

[Imaro]

That is the problem with 90s racial thinking. It assumes marketing departments dictate race relations in the US. This is why white suburban people think racial tension is dissapating, but people like me who live in ethnically diverse neighborhoods know that is not the case. Hauling around your one or two ethnic friends to show what an enlightened person you are doesn't make the world a better place. Ignoring the truth behind racial stereotypes doesn't make for better race relations on the ground. A better approach would have been for the marketing department to accurately reflect the racial makeup of gamers. So instead of inflating the number of ethnic characters, something like 80% white to 20% non-white would have been more believable.

So, how is this solution any less artificial than the one suggested? Marketing believed white males would not purchase books with a non-white/non-male character on the cover, so how do you determine what 20% of covers get treatment and which don't? If one with non-white's on it doesn't sell, is it because of the cover or because of the content?

Again, you seem to be missing the point... diversity actually does start with conscious effort and conscious awareness (usually through the efforts of a few who are such), call it "artificial" if you want. And even your solution is what you seem to be implying as artificial. The fact of the matter is... this is exactly how diversity in almost all areas have started in the U.S., and I for one would rather these type of things be implemented, regardless of how "artificial" they are, than for people to sit back and wait for it to fix itself.

 

[Remus Lupin]

Honestly, I always thought Regdar was black.

 

[Bump2daWiza]

Again, you seem to be missing the point... diversity actually does start with conscious effort and conscious awareness (usually through the efforts of a few who are such), call it "artificial" if you want. And even your solution is what you seem to be implying as artificial. The fact of the matter is... this is exactly how diversity in almost all areas have started in the U.S., and I for one would rather these type of things be implemented, regardless of how "artificial" they are, than for people to sit back and wait for it to fix itself.

Diversity in the US? Where are you living. I live in a city where all the people are ethnic. Next door is a suburb full of white people. Every well-to do place I have been is full of white folks. Talking in the classroom about how great diversity is campus, how there should be more equal representation of races in media, how hurftul negative stereotypes are does little for the black man who can't afford a college education. By the way I am all for Affirmative Action. Because it is pro-active and it gets more black faces into the work force. But I find it insulting when a product (that appeals mostly to white people with a good education) pats itself on the back for throwing in some colored characters. They want diversity, give inner city kids a discount on the books. Stop putting out splat books every week so us poor folk can't even stay current on the hobby. Use language that appeals to people without a college education. But don't include a black monk and act like you are Malcolm X or something.

 

[Remus Lupin]

I feel a thread lockdown coming any time now.

 

[Mustrum_Ridcully]

As a non-white guy, I think there is nothing more pathetic and sad than self loathing white folk trying to impress minorities.

You can't love someone else if you can't love yourself?

But as a white male (and German) I say if self-loathing leads to the end of both sexism and racism, I am fine with it.

If you say it doesn't work, okay. Then we need to get more creative.

 

[Cadfan]

I usually like Cook, but this is just cynical 90s nonsense. An attack on all things white and vaguely European. Diversity is great. Not being racist is great. But artificially engineered diversity is worse. Boo Monte Cook.

I agree with this completely. Fictional minorities should have to compete on a level playing field against fictional whites in order to obtain fictional jobs. Until said fictional minorities are equally qualified as said fictional whites, it makes sense that the fictional jobs go to the fictional whites. Anything else is a fictional quota, which fictionally offends my fictional sense of fictional fair fictional play fictional fictional.

 

[Barastrondo]

The whole notion of Monte Cook telling us what a good guy he is because he was upset that Redgar, the white fighter, would be the figure head of the artwork, is frankly a little insulting to all the real injustices we have had to endure. Come one. It is art for a game that mostly white folks play.

See, to me that was less of a story about how awesome Monte is and how dinosaur-like the marketing department at WotC was.

To me, the concept of art for a fantasy world is about showing the fantasy world. It doesn't matter what the demographic of your actual players is: you're looking at showing characters that are representative of the world. Now if you're deliberately doing a setting that's based on a mostly-white area like Warhammer's Old World, where non-whites are rare and exotic — or something like Nyambe, where non-Africans are rare and exotic — then yeah, you should have a representative majority in the art. But if you're not zeroing in on one particular continent, then you're theoretically depicting a world. And if an entire world is 80% white — that's pretty weird.

I find that it's the difference between depicting "the world as modeled on the demographics of a gaming group" and depicting "a believable world." And for marketing to insist on the former — well, I think that's bogus.

 

[Psion]

So, how is this solution any less artificial than the one suggested? Marketing believed white males would not purchase books with a non-white/non-male character on the cover, so how do you determine what 20% of covers get treatment and which don't?

Roll percentile dice. Are you even a gamer?

Anyway, IBTL.

 

[Imaro]

Diversity in the US? Where are you living. I live in a city where all the people are ethnic. Next door is a suburb full of white people. Every well-to do place I have been is full of white folks. Talking in the classroom about how great diversity is campus, how there should be more equal representation of races in media, how hurftul negative stereotypes are does little for the black man who can't afford a college education. By the way I am all for Affirmative Action. Because it is pro-active and it gets more black faces into the work force. But I find it insulting when a product (that appeals mostly to white people with a good education) pats itself on the back for throwing in some colored characters. They want diversity, give inner city kids a discount on the books. Stop putting out splat books every week so us poor folk can't even stay current on the hobby. Use language that appeals to people without a college education. But don't include a black monk and act like you are Malcolm X or something.

Where do I live...Chicago. I'm a black male with a college degree in computer science, who grew up in the South Shore neighborhood. Was it easy, nope... did I do it, yep because it was what I wanted (and guess what... I wasn't the only black to do this.). And yes I am all for affirmative action as well.

As far as the things you suggest above,
"Language that appeals to people without a college education", (Why? If anything D&D expanded my vocabulary when I was younger.)

"discount on the books", (You make a choice, I gave up certain things when I was younger so I could scrape together the money to buy my books. The question is how to make this more appealing than xbox 360 or PS3 games?)

"Splat Books every month" (Now I make nice money, but even I find no need to purchase every splatbook, mini, dungeon tile or anything else WotC chooses to put out. I make choices on what I want based within how much money I can afford to spend.)

It seems your suggestions, IMHO, do more to cater to negative stereotypes than they do to help promote the game to non-white's. I don't get the impression Monte Cook is trying to portray himself as "Malcolm X". He was on the creative team and there are only so many and then only particular things which they can do in order to promote diversity. Everything you list above, except using dumber language, isn't something the creative team has any control over.

 

[buzz]

This isn't political correctness: This is fighting against a wrong-headed and stupid marketing-driven decision about what appears in your D&D books.

QFT.

I would love to see actual data that supports marketing's decision.

I’m not sure I understand how a clearly white/nordic dwarf means more diversity than a human of ambiguous ethnicity.

Yup. Elves and dwarves are not racially diverse. They are tall, slender white people and short, stout white people. (As they are typically rendered, that is. I always liked how the Shield Dwarves in the FRCS were deep brown.)

Looked at in this light, the only "iconic of color" in 3e was Ember the monk, unless you want to somehow count Krusk (which, honestly, I wouldn't).

OTOH, they did a good job on gender diversity. And Alhandra even got real armor!