Race, genre fiction and roleplaying
Larry, at OF Blog of the Fallen, has written a really interesting post entitled ‘Whitewashing Diversity‘. It’s all about the lack of diversity in science fiction and fantasy writing and about the way that this is never interrogated, let alone noticed.
Too often in the SF that I have read (perhaps a couple hundred of books over the years, so it is very possible that I might not have read the right sorts of SF), way too often are the issues surrounding diversity/Otherness presented from the dominant culture’s point of view. While many SF authors over the years have taken great pains to avoid the “White Man’s Burden” point of view dominating their stories of First Contact, all too often the notion of “discovery” that creeps into these tales is that these Others (perhaps analogues for Africans, Asians, Latinos, Native Americans, Pacific Islanders, etc. in US society today?) is that these “discovered” peoples (aliens) are ciphers, are often dangerous or at least potentially threatening, and that too often there isn’t a concerted effort even to “understand” these alien groups.
I remember reading A Wizard of Earthsea several times before it really clicked with me that Sparrowhawk and his people were non-white (specifically ‘red-brown‘ according to Ursula LeGuin) and the Kargish people who are the enemy of Sparrowhawk in the second book int he series, are white. As LeGuin puts it
My color scheme was conscious and deliberate from the start. I didn’t see why everybody in science fiction had to be a honky named Bob or Joe or Bill. I didn’t see why everybody in heroic fantasy had to be white (and why all the leading women had “violet eyes”). It didn’t even make sense. Whites are a minority on Earth now—why wouldn’t they still be either a minority, or just swallowed up in the larger colored gene pool, in the future.
In my experience, RPGs fall into the same trap. Most fantasy worlds feature primarily white people, usually surrounded by white demihumans, in a world with vague similarities to medieval Europe. In these worlds, the other is usually humanoid monsters, some with odd aesthetic similarities to real human cultures (I remember wither WFRP or D&D having hobgoblins who look like Mongols, but I can’t find the picture right now to prove it). Even worse is the oft-mentioned fact that, with a few exceptions, the ‘evil’ version of a normal RPG race is invariably black skinned.
I’ve tried to consider this in my own games. My last D&D campaign involved a group called the Dareco who were dark-skinned humans who worshipped dragons and were ostracised for it. But it never really gelled in the campaign except for an occasional backdrop. But I’ve played more female characters than non-white ones in my time.
Ultimately, people do play RPGs (in general) for escapism and its fair enought to not want to engage too heavily in the problems of the world while doing so. And, further to that, the tendency of sci-fi and fantasy to take real-world genuine issues and make pat plot hooks out of them is hardly something we want to encourage. But it would be nice if we tried to be more inclusive – it woudn’t make it any less fun.
3 Comments to Race, genre fiction and roleplaying
The Mountain Witch. Actually, given the whole “otaku” phenomenon, does Japanese culture count as “other”? 
But seriously, while I can think of a handful of games that consciously encourage you to play characters in a different culture (Orkworld springs to mind, for some reason), I suspect that the reason that they’re not that common is the same reason that faux-medieval fantasy and urban fantasy games are more popular than sci-fi games — familiarity. While you need to absorb a bunch of background to know whether a laser carbine is more useful to grab than a PGMP when you’re scrambling out the airlock, pretty much everyone knows what a crossbow or submachine-gun is.
Which is why it makes complete sense that, for example, when our group played Universalis, my proposed setting of “Jamaican Folktale” got voted out — it is very hard to make an interesting story when you don’t know how that group of stories is supposed to work (the stock characters and situations, etc). As it happens, we eventually went with “Russian Folktale”, which seemed to work fine.
And I certainly wouldn’t feel comfortable running a game about, say, Thailand or Indonesia without an awful lot of prep — just because I don’t think I know enough interesting things about those cultures to make a compelling story. (A pulp game set in those places would be a different matter, of course; but they’re then more colour than countries.) I’d be a bit wary about playing someone from these cultures, too.
That said, there are plenty of cultures that I would have no problem running a game in — ancient China, for example. (Note that I do not say a *realistic* game.) There is enough media out there showing me the shapes of stories in that setting that I can have some confidence that I can say, “You meet in a teahouse” and have an idea of what might happen, and who might be around; and that the players will have some idea too.
(BTW, if you have not read the Barry Hughart books featuring Li Kao & Number 10 Ox, may I take this opportunity to recommend them.)
In summary — I think that much of the reason for the monoculture is not “fear of the other”, as such, and more “what stories can I tell fluently and easily under time pressure” (since you can’t go and research an appropriate response in the middle of a game).
Of course, the question then becomes, “Is it important to expand the contexts I can comfortably tell stories in?” And I’d say, tentatively, that I find it more fun.
[Sorry for the dump; I accidentally read this after your Kapcon post, and it's been rolling around in my head ever since.]
No need to apologise! All interesting points and I think that your comment on “what stories can I fluently tell” is a good one. After all story telling, whether as part of a game or not, generally comes from shared cultural experience.
Though that aside if you are playing a game in modern LA, for example, and you don’t have at least one Hispanic and/or Black character you aren’t being overly representative. Though then of course you get in to the murky waters of stereotype… which is a whole other discussion.
NickJanuary 28, 2009
Svend – best comment on the blog so far! I’m glad my post caused some thoughts and if I had something to give you, I would. Let me know if you ever need a severely beat up copy of the 1e DMG.
Having been in Japan recently, Japanese culture definitely counts as other. It’s the least western place I’ve ever been – far less western than China.
Recently, a friend started a Japanese based game. He’s a pakeha who’s spent a lot of time in Japan and has done a metric fuckton of research and planning for this game. Another friend was a bit reluctant to play largely because he wasn’t sure that he could play the game well. He overcame his inhibitions and was enjoying the campaign as much as pretty much any other game he’s played.
So, I know exactly what you’re talking about when you say that it’s about “what stories can I tell fluently and easily under time pressure”. That’s exactly the reason I find running sci-fi games tough as well. That doesn’t change the Sophie’s point – there are plenty of modern style games where you need to have non-white characters to be faithful to the setting.
In short, I think this is as much about players as it is about GMs – it’s good to play something that isn’t a direct extension of yourself and perhaps have some fun with the setting as a result.
January 28, 2009