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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Hussar" data-source="post: 8023581" data-attributes="member: 22779">To be entirely fair, [USER=6801286]@Imaculata[/USER] , I'm probably just as guilty as anyone for going off on tangents.  And, fair enough, asking for further clarification is great.  But, at a certain point, it does get frustrating when that clarification has had to be repeated ad nauseum because people cannot simply accept that other interpretations are valid.  I don't agree with your interpretation is perfectly fine. "I don't agree with your interpretation, therefore it's wrong" is not. ((Not that you have done that, I'll leave that one to people like [USER=2518]@Derren[/USER] (who, in the opening pages of this thread accused anyone who thinks that the writeups are problematic are simply making up things to be offended about) or [USER=23751]@Maxperson[/USER] who refuses to even listen to the explanations and has flat out said that these interpretations are wrong and repeatedly brings up overly pedantic points in order to "prove" that the interpretation are wrong.Sorry, but, if you can support an interpretation using the text, it's not wrong.  It might be a different one from the one you like, but, it's not wrong.  Everyone pretty much agrees that the language used to describe orcs and drow are very close to the language used to denigrate all sorts of people.  Now, I get that people want to draw a line here and say, well, it's okay to denigrate fictional characters, they don't have feelings.  But, the problem is, if you have had this language used about you, and then you see that language used in the game, it makes the squick factor jump off the scale.  Again, not because the writers are raging bigots or anything else.  But, simply because that language is painful.  I mean, I'm not exactly in love with half-elf/orc/etc, but, it doesn't really bother me too much because, well, it just doesn't.  But, when I see this in the Player's Handbook:There's a level of squick there and outright racism that's pretty hard to ignore.  An orc in the wild is stupid and savage, but, if you breed them just right, they get a bit smarter and they can be tamed.  Yeesh, that's pretty bloody brutal.  And that's the first introduction to orcs a new player will see.  Again, the parallels with discussions about black slaves in the 19th century are pretty clear.IOW, people aren't making this naughty word up.</blockquote>

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