There's no way to talk about racism without sounding racist, so let's just drop that to the side. Does racism ever come up in the game? I know that Joe Kondor was said to be a black man.
In the altercation that I had with my neighbor, there was a second neighbor with whom I had a lesser altercation. He was black. Of course, racism came into the conversation. I was telling him about a Chris Rock stand up comedy routine. It's called "I Love Black People, But I Hate Niggers." I was quoting the stand up comedy routine verbatim, and doing a fairly good Chris Rock impression, I thought.
I am not black, but Chris Rock is. My neighbor took it as a racial slur. We had a lesser altercation over that. It didn't go very far. I explained it to him, and even offered to let him listen to the stand up routine. The last night I lived there, we got very drunk together.
Are there any black people that come to this message board, and/or could someone tell me why this would be considered racist? No, I am not black. However, the original author of the stand up routine is. I gave him full and complete credit. Personally, I saw it as showing respect to Chris Rock, that I liked his material enough to quote it in a conversation about racism. My neighbor took it as a racial slur. I thought this could be of use to someone in world design.
It doesn't come up that much which is a good point for game designers. Now "Orc Rising" deals with it in a well-done way.
Also, I had considered doing another 'Culture Shock' post, A1, like you did.
1. "Asian youths" is the common descriptor for Middle Eastern Moslem young men who are rioting in England. Its an example of political correctness.
Now, this is a taboo, and unlike some people, I think taboos can be useful. They allow problems to be solved by mere avoidance based on social and/or spiritual fear. Some problems exist that have no ready solution, or the most obvious solution has a lot of disadvantages.
"Violence never solves anything"...except Nazis, Shinto Militarists, Communists, slavery, piracy, and a host of other problems. But if people realize how effective violence is at solving problems, then they will be more inclined to use it, and that has a LOT of problems associated. Of course, you also have a lot of people not thinking clearly because of the taboo, but thats a lesser side effect than the greater side effect of general rise in violence.
Ideally, someone would not need taboos, and could reason based on morality and practicality clearly, but few are the people that can do that, so we have crutches.
2. "Name that party": This game is less explosive. Its merely the note that whenever a Republican idiot does something rascally, his party membership will be trumpetted, and when a Democrat jerk does something nasty, his party membership will generally not be mentioned.
This can apply in other worlds.
One common situation is to have criminals shamed by being named in public newspapers, but you could have the sons and daughters of the local elite miss this treatment.
Or you could have two factions duking it out (sometimes in back alleys with daggers), but mostly politely in public. Whenever the King's faction does something outrageous, the itinerant minstrels herald it to the sky, but when the Queen's faction (supported by the infatuation all the minstrels have for the romantic young queen) does something outrageous, it is announced, but no one mentions it was a Queensman who did it.
If I recall correctly, the rules specifically suggest that such concepts be used judiciously.
Yes, Joe Kondor is black; he's also racist. He believes that all white people are prejudiced against black people, and that all black people are oppressed. My editor actually found it a bit annoying in places, but it was part of the persona I was building for him and an important part of his relationship with Lauren Hastings. He gets hit with it in future books as well.
The world Orc Rising is a world about racism; so is Race Wars. They're both done in a fantasy-removed way. In Orc Rising, the orcs are tribal jungle dwellers with a very complex social structure and many gods; the humans, elves, and dwarfs are "civilized"--elves primarily agrarian, humans primarily herdsmen, dwarfs primarily early industrial--and are all monotheists. Throughout the world, the "free peoples", the "civilized" races, are enslaving the orcs in the name of giving them the benefits of civilization, and it can be argued that an enslaved orc lives longer and better than a tribal orc (particularly the males). Yet the entire system is predicated on the assumption that orcs are inferior, not really people, and that by enslaving them and converting their lands to civilized use we are raising them to better lives--much as a domesticated horse has a better life than a wild one. The verser is slowly faced with this conflict. Different versers handle it differently. John Walker's companion Bob is an orc he bought on the slave market and turned into a friend. Adam Keller founded an orc nation that was preparing to defend the jungles against the invading "civilized" races.
In Race Wars, the entire known world is about the size of Australia, and a river runs through it from north to south. (Obviously, the river does not run all the way from one ocean to the other; but the river comes from the northern mountains along the northern coastline and empties into the ocean to the south.) To one side of the river we have Neanderthals; to the other side, Cro Magnons. Each race considers itself superior--and by its own definitions, it is. Neanderthals are stronger, with greater stamina and resistance. Cro Magnons are smarter and more agile. Both are facing the fact that their side of the continent is pretty much full, and they need more land--which lies on the other side of the river, infested with that inferior creature. The verser looks enough like a Cro Magnon that the Neanderthals will think he is one, but not enough like a Cro Magnon for the Cro Magnons to accept him as such. There are a lot of possible solutions to this, but no one has ever found one in the few times I've actually run the world.
Remember, science fiction and fantasy often address racism by proxy: Klingons, Romulans, Cardassians, Bajorans, half-elves, half-orcs, house elves, centaurs, and more are all opportunities to explore racial issues without using real races. It's not a bad way to do it.
--M. J. Young
This happened during the conflict I mentioned in another thread about a different neighbor. I just realized that racism came into play with him, as well.
The other neighbor was a gay Englishman. (Two groups stereotyped as being very polite and well mannered, I might add) When he freaked out on me, he woke me up by making the same kind of noise that I was making. I was (I believe) trying to tell him that he made his point. Just waking up after about 4 hours of sleep does tend to befuddle the mind, and I wasn't quite able to express this to him.
He was screaming and cussing at me. I was slowly coming towards him. Imagine one of the original Dawn of the Dead zombies walking, and that's about how I was walking. (Best zombie movie ever made, IMHO) I'm not sure why, although I am absolutely positive that I did not have any violent or otherwise aggressions intentions. That wouldn't be in my character. (In other words, in complete opposite of his stereotype of being polite and well mannered, also, in complete violation of the notion of The Raving Psychotic)
He screamed "If you come any closer, I'll call 911!!!" In retrospect, if I had it to do again, I would have taken a step closer and said "Do it, I dare you to" I was completely calm, although not completely coherent. My neighbor is freaking out. He's going to be screaming at the cops to "ARREST THIS CRAZY PERSON!!!!!!!!" when he is completely unharmed, and I am standing calmly talking to the officers. Who did he think the cops would think was crazy?
So, it would seem that gay Englishmen are the crazy people, and the psychotic is the calm and polite individual.
He kept screaming that his father used to beat him. I remember thinking "Well, if you acted like this, did it ever occur to you that MAYBE you deserved it?"
I am a Raving Psychotic, and I was completely calm and rational, although not entirely clear headed, an expected side effect of just waking up.
Who is the insane person here?
It occurred to me that in the as yet unpublished For Better or Verse there is a racial conflict between the humans and the sprites.
Also, in the Parakeet Valley world of Verse Three, Chapter One (which is entirely different from The Valley from which I drew those parakeets, from the demo we used to distribute) there is a bit of a racial tension between the Parakeet People and the Sparrow People. Kondor, of course, notes it specifically, that the people of that world are divided by the colors of their feathers, but it is not pursued because the Sparrow People won't let the versers near them anyway.
Race conflicts are done quite a bit in fantasy; it's one of the best stories for them in our age, and one of the gentlest ways to approach them. I mean, Legalos and Gimli are clearly given to us as the elf and the dwarf who start at odds with each other because of race and grow to be the closest of friends through their adventure. Even in Tolkien these questions were covered this way.
--M. J. Young