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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Bill Zebub" data-source="post: 8853618" data-attributes="member: 7031982">Who determines that?  The person whose very recent ancestors were enslaved, and who themselves continue to suffer the effects of a history of discrimination and racism, or the person for whom those disadvantages don't apply, and are somewhat abstract?And to what extent does the seriousness of an egregious social disparity get weighed against the cost of changing a game of make believe elves and dragons?I mean, seriously, how many $%&@ing times does it have to be explained to you, in how many different ways, THAT THEY ARE NOT MEANT AS STAND-INS?  I know you've been participating in these threads for a long time, and this has been explained over and over again, and yet you keep reverting to this falsehood.  Are you skipping over the explanations?  Do you not understand them?  Do you think we are lying?  Or does it undermine your position so you are turning a blind eye?  Which is it?I will try once again:1. It is not necessary for the authors to have intentionally designed orcs as a stand-in for a particular race.  (Maybe they did, but I personally don't think so, and either way it's not a necessary condition.)2. Assuming the authors had the best of intentions, they wanted to portray orcs as vaguely human-like Bad Guys who could be slaughtered with impunity.  It's a common theme in lots of stories.3. In order to portray them that way, they used language and imagery that, as astute writers, they knew would convey the right message.  Barbaric, stupid, violent, primitive, ugly, promiscuous, superstitious, irrational, etc.4. Unfortunately, for all of recorded history that's the sort of imagery...propaganda...we humans use when we want to slaughter or enslave (or both) other humans.5. If you are somebody whose ethnic group has recently been on the receiving end of that treatment, and are still suffering the effects of discrimination, seeing the same portrayals, with the same results, presented in a game as a rollicking good time to be had by all, is pretty invalidating.On the other hand, if you and your relatives have not been on the receiving end of that treatment, then your opinion that this isn't a big deal, or your demand for proof that there's a connection or that a remedy would have any effect....basically doesn't matter.  I mean, you are allowed to have an opinion, of course, but it's about as relevant as the parenting opinions of the stranger in the supermarket who wants to tell you how to discipline your kid.  (To which my response is usually, "Go #$%@ yourself.")</blockquote>

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