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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Doug McCrae" data-source="post: 8320230" data-attributes="member: 21169">SummaryThis is a summary of the problem with respect to what the 5e D&D Monster Manual describes on page 7 as the "savage and brutal" "races" — orcs, goblins, etc.1. Orcs and similar monsters are almost exactly the same as humans: shape; size; sentience; language; tool use; wear clothes or armour; build structures; biological needs — food, water, shelter; feel pain; can be injured or suffer from disease; mortal; lack of inherent magical powers; bear children; interbreed with humans and produce viable offspring; social; organised societies; culture; religion.2. The ways in which they are not like humans correspond to racist ideas about non-white people: evil; bloodthirsty; worship evil gods or demons; widespread pulp-style cannibalism* and human** sacrifice; sexual threat; high fertility rates; dominant 'genetic' traits; bestial; inferior intellectual abilities; uncivilised; primitive; superstitious; always tribal; incapable of forming state societies.3. These traits are racial, biological, inherited, and unchangeable. This is the same as the modern idea of <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scientific_racism" target="_blank">scientific racism</a>.4. Orcs and similar monsters possess some non-negative traits that they share with real world non-white peoples such as darker skin, shamans and witch doctors (AD&D 1e DMG), non-state societies, or the hobgoblin's Japanese hair style and armour (D&D 5e MM).*Referring to eating any sentient being not just their own kind.**Or any other sentient being.Supporting Evidence and ArgumentThe following posts, from later in this thread, develop and give evidence for the argument above:<a href="https://www.enworld.org/threads/the-problem-with-evil-races-is-not-what-you-think.680980/page-13#post-8331089" target="_blank">Morally and intellectually inferior</a><a href="https://www.enworld.org/threads/the-problem-with-evil-races-is-not-what-you-think.680980/page-11#post-8328766" target="_blank">High fertility rates, dominant 'genetic' traits, and abundant population</a><a href="https://www.enworld.org/threads/the-problem-with-evil-races-is-not-what-you-think.680980/page-14#post-8333593" target="_blank">"Savage" and "civilised" races, devil worship, 'human' sacrifice, and 'cannibalism'</a><a href="https://www.enworld.org/threads/the-problem-with-evil-races-is-not-what-you-think.680980/page-14#post-8335349" target="_blank">Racial determinism in D&D and its similarity to scientific racism</a><a href="https://www.enworld.org/threads/the-problem-with-evil-races-is-not-what-you-think.680980/page-8#post-8325649" target="_blank">Goblin/hobgoblin art and East Asian peoples</a><a href="https://www.enworld.org/threads/the-problem-with-evil-races-is-not-what-you-think.680980/page-13#post-8332435" target="_blank">A counter-argument to the objection that the "savage" races are more like animals than people</a><a href="https://www.enworld.org/threads/the-problem-with-evil-races-is-not-what-you-think.680980/page-15#post-8336333" target="_blank">Possible sources for AD&D 1e's half-orc "mongrels" that "favor the orcish strain heavily"</a>These posts are from older threads:<a href="https://www.enworld.org/threads/the-problem-with-evil-races-is-not-what-you-think.680980/page-8#post-8325649" target="_blank">Racialisation of evil humanoids in AD&D 1e</a><a href="https://www.enworld.org/threads/wotcs-jeremy-crawford-on-d-d-races-going-forward.672716/page-108#post-8018587" target="_blank">The use of the racial slur "mongrel" to refer to half-orcs in AD&D 1e and AD&D 2e</a><a href="https://www.enworld.org/threads/dungeons-dragons-fans-seek-removal-of-oriental-adventures-from-online-marketplace.672989/page-53#post-8030192" target="_blank">D&D 5e made things worse</a><a href="https://www.enworld.org/threads/do-orcs-in-gaming-display-parallels-to-colonialist-propaganda.657679/page-28#post-7578234" target="_blank">Parallels between "The Brute" racial caricature and orcs</a><a href="https://www.enworld.org/threads/do-orcs-in-gaming-display-parallels-to-colonialist-propaganda.657679/page-30#post-7578522" target="_blank">Parallels between racism directed at Native Americans and evil humanoids in D&D</a>In 2005 Gary Gygax explicitly made a connection between a racist's view of non-white people and evil humanoids in D&D <a href="https://www.enworld.org/threads/tsr-2-confirms-tsr-3-s-acquisition-of-trademark-updated.680906/page-16#post-8318738" target="_blank">when he used the term "nits make lice" to justify the killing of evil humanoid women and children</a>.</blockquote>

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