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Two underlying truths: D&D heritage and inclusivity
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<blockquote data-quote="Aldarc" data-source="post: 8021653" data-attributes="member: 5142"><p>Accusing "others" of "[stretching] what is written for personal purposes" is fundamentally accusing them of a bad faith argument. People are being quite genuine when they are pointing out the harmful rhetoric used to describe orcs and its parallels with real life harmful, racist rhetoric. You may find it a stretch, but I suspect that you are not someone whose people have been routinely subjected to this sort of language for the past several hundred years. But a number of staff members at WotC apparently share in our "misinterpretation" of orcs, so it will be changed regardless of how harmless you believe it to be. Just like a lot of misogyny and homophobia was slowly removed from the game too despite the protests of it all being a harmless fantasy game.</p><p></p><p>At the risk of a thread warning, putting my big toe into politics, we could hear similar language used by the alt-right and white supremacists groups around the time of the Charlottesville rally. And following that rally, I looked deeper into the alt-right, its language, and other white supremacist rhetoric (e.g., the Great Replacement, inherent violence, "race realism," etc.), and afterwards it was difficult not to see the similar undertones in the description of orcs. And when you read the language of pro-slavery voices, it's chilling and horrifying that a lot of similar language is (again) what we find in some of the descriptions about orcs: e.g., bestial, subhuman, inherently violent, requiring domestication, tribal, lacking intelligence, incapable of civilizing, etc. And as a Southern white man whose lineage stretches back to the South even in Revolutionary times, this sort of harmful language is something that I want to see discarded from my fantasy elf game. I remember being told that whites were outraged that were being told that minstrel shows were regarded as offensive, and they demanded that black people tell them what the harm is. This is one reason why minstrel shows and blackface lasted as long as they did in the United States. I'm currently living in Europe where there is still blackface aplenty and being told that it's harmless and that we Americans are just overly sensitive. Racism is alive and well.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Aldarc, post: 8021653, member: 5142"] Accusing "others" of "[stretching] what is written for personal purposes" is fundamentally accusing them of a bad faith argument. People are being quite genuine when they are pointing out the harmful rhetoric used to describe orcs and its parallels with real life harmful, racist rhetoric. You may find it a stretch, but I suspect that you are not someone whose people have been routinely subjected to this sort of language for the past several hundred years. But a number of staff members at WotC apparently share in our "misinterpretation" of orcs, so it will be changed regardless of how harmless you believe it to be. Just like a lot of misogyny and homophobia was slowly removed from the game too despite the protests of it all being a harmless fantasy game. At the risk of a thread warning, putting my big toe into politics, we could hear similar language used by the alt-right and white supremacists groups around the time of the Charlottesville rally. And following that rally, I looked deeper into the alt-right, its language, and other white supremacist rhetoric (e.g., the Great Replacement, inherent violence, "race realism," etc.), and afterwards it was difficult not to see the similar undertones in the description of orcs. And when you read the language of pro-slavery voices, it's chilling and horrifying that a lot of similar language is (again) what we find in some of the descriptions about orcs: e.g., bestial, subhuman, inherently violent, requiring domestication, tribal, lacking intelligence, incapable of civilizing, etc. And as a Southern white man whose lineage stretches back to the South even in Revolutionary times, this sort of harmful language is something that I want to see discarded from my fantasy elf game. I remember being told that whites were outraged that were being told that minstrel shows were regarded as offensive, and they demanded that black people tell them what the harm is. This is one reason why minstrel shows and blackface lasted as long as they did in the United States. I'm currently living in Europe where there is still blackface aplenty and being told that it's harmless and that we Americans are just overly sensitive. Racism is alive and well. [/QUOTE]
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