Regarding the Drow...

[jhkimrpg]

So there were a number of responses to my last post, and I wanted to try to summarize and address some of the points brought up. The controversy as such seemed centered on the drow -- which indeed seem to be a sticky point in many similar discussions, presumably because of their popularity.

Comments

[vito_excalibur]

Yeah, this is good thinking.

[adamdray]

I have to admit that seeing the reaction to SotC's treatment of race and gender terrified me as a game designer. I'm a privileged white guy and I like to think I've overcome the race and gender biases of the communities in which I grew up, but I know I probably will make some stupid, unintentional blunder when I write my games. I do want to talk about these things and strive to be better, though. I worked pretty hard on race and gender when I worked with my artist to design my cover, for Verge but I'm not sure how well I succeeded. Will my game's examples come purely from the world I know best and thus alienate people with skin color and culture different from my own? I hope not.

[bar_sinister]

I'm pretty nervous about this, too, Adam. I am currently working on a game set entirely in a culture based on Native American cultures from the Southwestern US. I'm a privileged white guy, and I do worry how this is going to come across. I plan on writing about my intentions and efforts to avoid racism in the introduction, but a certain element of appropriation is present and can't be avoided.

I'm also embarrassed at this point regarding my treatment of race in my first published fantasy setting, too. I did a poor job there, and it's entirely due to ignorance.

[eyebeams]

His suggestion was that the original was devoid of any real-world racial connotations, but that some later illustrations of the drow gave them a real ethnic skin tone (as opposed to jet black) or gave them racist cultural associations, like Xen'Drik in Eberron. I know relatively little about the full history of drow illustrations and adventures, so I won't comment about the process of development.

Not quite. My suggestion was that Gary Gygax (et al) seemed to go out of his way to separate the drow from any suggestion of being African-like, but that this wasn't retained by successors. This is a response to a possible charge of unconscious racism or any racist intent. You certainly can't have the latter in the face of indications that he seems to have intentionally avoided it.

I think I should include some general statements here about race relations in general. Part of the controversy that seems to surround the race discussions seems to be different reactions. So, for example, I said that having a fictional people where the black-

[eyebeams]

Notably, he suggests that the drow are not problematic, but orcs are. He notes, "Stereotypical orcs closely resemble racist stereotypes about Africans: violence, strength, stupidity, fecundity, faux-tribal organization and even the need to be led. So it's the link to a real stereotype that's the thing." However, I'm not sure that matching stereotypes are the sole key to the issue here.

Again, the orcs thing is my wife's observation -- one she made without any prompting on my part to specifically describe a fantasy cliche she *did* thing had racist connotations, contrasted with dark elves, which she didn't think did.

As I said above, I think making skin too central has its own problems, and that yes, orcs are a bigger problem because their portrayals are more relevant, to the point where The Orcs of Thar specifically used orcs and goblin types as excuses to use multiple racial stereotypes, because they've been rendered down to a colonial ur-stereotype so effectively.

A hypothetical series which has blacks always as non-stereotypical

[eyebeams]

So, the question is, is there an issue regarding fantasy races in general and the drow in particular? My general reaction to this was that writing in modern America, if you write a story in which you invent a people where the light-skinned ones are good and the black-skinned ones are evil, there are definite racial connotations. That doesn't mean I don't think that it should be done. I think that there are many interesting stories and scenarios that can be made using that as a premise about race.

Sure there are racial connotations. I mean, you have two different groups with different physical features. You can't not have it. But "connotations" are not prescriptive; you have to be more specific. Can it be interpreted as racist? Yes. Can it be interpreted as racist by a reasonable, informed audience? I'm not so sure about that, but maybe yes, since creatives actually let the concept degenerate. Do creators have an obligation to people outside of the informed audience? Maybe. Sort of.

eyebeams draws a more subtle distinction that the

[eyebeams]

So what am I saying should be done? First of all, I am flatly opposed to any sort of censorship. I favor free expression -- which includes both artistic expression but also critical analysis of art. I think that we should continue to have games which produce creations like the drow, but we should also be able to talk about the racial connotations without people crying out about censorship.

I didn't use "censorship" in the sense of something interfering with the rights given you by your nation-state or anything. I'm talking about Millsian forms of discourse where just because we accept that anybody can say anything, doesn't mean we also accept than anything and everything is a good idea. And I urge you not to further milk this business for sentiment when I have made it clear what I meant when I used that word.

If, say, I were running the D&D line at this point, I would not try to excise the drow from the product line -- but I would try to consciously introduce more dark-skinned, non-exoticized good characters and creatures. I was

[badgerbag]

Somewhat tangential, but I can't read about blackface without thinking of the excellent flowchart: Should I use blackface on my blog? by Gary of ebogjonson.

Not directly related to the drow fans, but good to read and think about. Also... hilarious.

dark elves = rascist ? answer=NO

[anonymous]

i dont believe that dark elves having black skin is rascist toward the black peoples. having black skin was a way to distinguish them from there fair skinned counterparts. for one thing, it better suited there dark, underground envioroment. having black skin did not make them inferior then other races, it just made them more unique. the fact that the drow are a gennerally evil race has nothing to do with the color of there skin - it was the choices they made as a society and by the individuals ofthe drow people.

Re: dark elves = rascist ? answer=NO

[jhkimrpg]

I didn't say that dark elves were inherently racist against black people. They do inherently have racial themes, though, which can be anti-racist or racist or various mixes. Particularly in the U.S., if you write fiction where you have a race where the black-skinned of a race are generally evil while the light-skinned are good, it is going to have racial themes.

Really, I don't see how the fictional device regarding black-skinned elves changes things. i.e. I could say that it is a curse that made the drow both evil and black-skinned, is that any more or less racist than saying that their evil is due to the choices they made as a society? I think in both cases, it depends on how it is handled.