Reading your article now.

I agree that they stepped in something. Its one of those things, that,
like blackface, is nearly impossible to step in without stirring up some
very ugly issues.

(side track: anyone see Robert Downey Jr. in 'Tropic Thunder'? Is that
the 'one way' that blackface is not offensive, or should that role not
have been used in a movie?)

I remember the first time I actually read the original Tarzan novel. As
a teen, just coming into race consciousness and hitting that stage where
you understand just why other people as treating you differently, I was
shocked at the way Blacks were cast in that novel.

So... back to your article.

'Subconscious process' I think hits the nail on the head. The tropes of
past decades of racism are very much still alive and well in western
society. We don't say them out in the open anymore, but anyone raised in
"this culture" has them buried in there somewhere. They pop out in
subtle ways all the time. Unless you practice diligent mindfulness, like
the best of Buddhist monks, you're going to let them slip out now and
then. Often you'll be completely unaware of it, even when called on it.

I'd say that's what this book is putting out. There's a cultural
archetype out there that is just plain ugly - the primitive savage. The
book is that archetype, in Ape-men. Denied the ability to put it on a
human ethnic group, they cast it onto the nearest non-human.

If you look in fantasy, you'll see this archetype all over the place.
Fantasy has its roots in racist entertainment, and its never quite
managed to cast that off. A large number of non-humans in fantasy are
little more than the racist stereotypes placed on blacks, asians,
indians, native americans, jews, arabs, gypsies, irish, and so on... put
onto non-humans in order to make them 'safe'...

[Now I'm drifting off topic...]

You can even see it in MMO-gaming. Log into World of Warcraft and listen
to the voices on the factions and the cultures ascribed to them.
- Now here I might be 'going to far' for some people...
But Horde side's traditional races: Tauren, Orc, Troll - accents and
affectations that are stereotypes of Plains Indians, Blacks, and Black
Jamaicans. However Undead and Blood Elves broke that mold.
Alliance side you've got Caucasian voice acting and cultural themes
across the board - with a vague possibility that Night Elves have a
Japanese theme to their architecture.




Kynn Bartlett wrote:
> Hi everyone,
>
> Last year I reviewed a 3rd party D&D 4e product called "Races of the Shroud:
> The Apelord." I was kind of bothered by the racial coding and said so in my
> review, but I found I got dismissed a lot. With the recent controversy over
> the NY Post's chimp cartoon -- and heightened awareness of the way in which
> Africans and African Americans have been portrayed as monkeys -- I'm
> wondering if I was on to something after all.
>
> Here's the original post; what do you think?
>
> http://kynn.livejournal.com/871279.html
>
> --Kynn
>
>


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