Options to define our characters are a good thing; the ability to characterise ourself and how we feel about things is important in a character driven roleplaying game. Fisher doesn't want that option to be present at all, unless there's an option to accept the behaviour as well; good news, there already is. It's the current default, where you listen, abide and accept the behaviour and treat it as though it's entirely normal and okay. that's what we do right now, and we don't have any *other* option at all. If you want the option to double down on it as well, then by all means, make it any option - but right now the 'default' which we are all forced to accept, is to be passively complicit and accepting of it, and that's not okay.
+1 to this paragraph. Not sure about this rest, but +1 to this. You want to treat racism as a normal part of the world with many competing races, where each race has its own deity? Fine. You want to call people out for that behavior and consider it abnormal/wrong by reasonable ethical standards? Fine. You want to smack Astarion upside the head for an indirect insult he levels at you? Fine. I think there are ways to reason why there is baked-in racism to Larian's world, especially in DOS2 when the Lizards enslave the elves, the humans slaughter the elves,
the elves seek to conquer the world, the dwarves are doing their own bullshit to destroy or conquer the other races
, and every race is almost a different species with its own patron deity... racism is a response to a world where peoples do not trust each other, and where hostility to foreign ways is baked into their theology and culture, and where xenophobia is more of a defense mechanism than an ideology (a bit reminiscent of pre-Industrial Europe). I see this as feasible in Faerun, but I also think that the cultures and ways of life are so intermixed and entangled with each other... hence "cosmopolitan" in nature... you should be allowed to condemn xenophobic perspectives on the basis of such ethical and practical cosmopolitanism, or to embrace it as a worldview or defense mechanism. In any case, the option should be available for sensible self-characterization. I've been stereotyped enough and called enough slurs in real life that I accept that racist language and xenophobic perspective is a widespread, but learned, behavior. Player agency in the characterization of one's own morality is important.
If you want to play the defensive species nationalist, more power to you. If you want to call out racist behaviors because it undermines the trust you have in your party members and their loyalty to party members of other races... that's MORE THAN VALID... in fact, it's necessary.
On the other hand, I am sympathetic to the idea that Larian shouldn't place too much effort in making us roleplay the party's tone or morality police. Balancing act in writing and all that. In any case, the option should be there. Within the constraints of the world, you should be the person you want to be. That is in the nature of the character-driven RPG, and the idea that a virtuous person would just sit by while someone throws out racial nonsense is contrary to good roleplaying writing, even within a fantasy world, even within Faerun.
Edit: I still think there are places where "fantasy racism" just makes sense. Ex: Lae'zel's racial and cultural chauvinism makes sense and is an important expression of an aspect of Githyanki culture, which seems to be a culture built on expressions of superiority and brutality. The nature of their culture and corresponding worldview is further confirmed by Kith'rak Voss. Astarion's a pompous piece of shit. Let him be a pompous piece of shit. You should be able to agree or disagree with either of them, to varying degrees of intensity, and they should be allowed to respond accordingly in a convincing manner.
