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Unearthed Arcana: Gothic Lineages & New Race/Culture Distinction
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<blockquote data-quote="Guest 6801328" data-source="post: 8186375"><p>No. Please allow me to lay out the problem:</p><ol> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">For centuries (millennia?) subjugation of other people has been rationalized through the same de-humanizing tropes and language: they are primitive, they are savage, they breed like rabbits, they are ugly, the are inherently evil, they can't control their emotions, etc. etc. etc. They are not really human, and thus it is ok to kill/enslave/exploit them.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">Those associations have been used for so long that most of us don't see anything controversial about it.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">Thus, when writers...whether we mean RPG writers or Tolkien...want to describe "the bad guys" the most effective way to convey that image is to use that language, possibly without fully understanding <em>why</em> that language works.</li> <li data-xf-list-type="ol">For the largest RPG audience, the ethnic group most associated with oppression will probably be africans, or african-americans. So when we talk about it, we're going to see that connection. But the same language has been used to justify subjugation and genocide against "more primitive" cultures around the world, not just against africans, and not just by western europeans/americans.</li> </ol><p>In other words, the strategy used to de-humanize mongols was...surprise!...the same strategy used to de-humanize africans. So when Tolkien was tapping into that subconscious bias when he was basing his orcs off of mongols, he was perpetuating the exact same insidious mythology that sits in peoples' subconscious when they say, "It's not systemic racism...those people really are more likely to commit crimes." Or whatever the claim is.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="Guest 6801328, post: 8186375"] No. Please allow me to lay out the problem: [LIST=1] [*]For centuries (millennia?) subjugation of other people has been rationalized through the same de-humanizing tropes and language: they are primitive, they are savage, they breed like rabbits, they are ugly, the are inherently evil, they can't control their emotions, etc. etc. etc. They are not really human, and thus it is ok to kill/enslave/exploit them. [*]Those associations have been used for so long that most of us don't see anything controversial about it. [*]Thus, when writers...whether we mean RPG writers or Tolkien...want to describe "the bad guys" the most effective way to convey that image is to use that language, possibly without fully understanding [I]why[/I] that language works. [*]For the largest RPG audience, the ethnic group most associated with oppression will probably be africans, or african-americans. So when we talk about it, we're going to see that connection. But the same language has been used to justify subjugation and genocide against "more primitive" cultures around the world, not just against africans, and not just by western europeans/americans. [/LIST] In other words, the strategy used to de-humanize mongols was...surprise!...the same strategy used to de-humanize africans. So when Tolkien was tapping into that subconscious bias when he was basing his orcs off of mongols, he was perpetuating the exact same insidious mythology that sits in peoples' subconscious when they say, "It's not systemic racism...those people really are more likely to commit crimes." Or whatever the claim is. [/QUOTE]
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