God WotC is doing everything wrong with it approach to race now.
I've not read the original books but it seems like the intellectual heft behind comes from Paul B. Sturtevant and Sturtevant is an idiot who paints with too wide a brush. Or maybe brush is too generous, he's using a roller to paint a portrait.
Yes, large parts of Tolkein are problematic and, yes, Tolkein was influenced by the scientific racism of his time. But to call Tolkein a scientific racist is a slight of hand on Sturevant's part. Instead, Tolkein was a devout (English) catholic who literally believed in souls Did Tolkein translate some scientific racist ideas into religious / magical ones? Yes. Was racism an influence? Yes. It the trilogy a work of scientific racism? No. The notion is risible. The assertion is so silly I can't believe someone actually wrote that and published it.
So as James Mendez Hodes says: "D&D, like Tolkien, makes race literally real in-game by applying immutable modifiers to character ability scores, skills, and other characteristics.â€
But that's a good thing. Instead of saying "isn't it problem that people are pretending race is real" we should be reflecting on how different fantasy races are from socially constructed "races". So if a racist tell us that in "Asians" and "Caucasians" are different races we should say: Oh really, can one of these 'races' see in the dark? Can either one go without sleep? Live to be 900? Dwarves and elves cannot have children but all socially constructed 'races' can have children together.
Instead of clutching pearls and saying that its horrible that people are fantasizing that race is real we should instead use elves and dwarves as thought experiments that demonstrate the considerable distance between the peoples of the earth and real races (species).
Again with Sturevant
"But let’s be real. They [Drow] have black skin. If you can’t see the problems with this, I can’t help you." I don't think I can help you either dear public historian but here goes.
Let's talk about real world stereotypes and see how well it maps onto the drow. The scientific racists grabbed onto evolutionary theory to construct Africans as occupying a lower rung on the evolutionary ladder than Europeans. The racists constructed Africans as less intelligent, less sophisticated and more physically fit. Also there was stuff about head size, arm length, brow size, lips, body odor and hair texture thrown in. (tangent -- if Africans had invented racism they would have focused on the profusion of hair on Europeans. But I'm tangenting)
As compared other races drow are more intelligent (proclivity for magic), more sophisticated (treacherous, scheming) , and less physical (lower constitutions). Drow are short, thin and, well, pixie like. Exclude the charcoal colored skin, it's almost like the drow are mirror opposite of the African stereotype. Or fuck the "almost like" -- the drow are so far away from the racist stereotype of Africans that they can't be compared. If Sturevant can't see that, I can't help him.
(and I didn't even mention that Drow also see in the dark, levitate and make things glow. Which is like which human group again?)
Now the issue with orcs is more problematic. Because the orc stereotype does indeed fit onto the stereotypes for many of the peoples who were victims of colonization. But didn't World of Warcraft teach us that replacing "inherent evil" with "cultural evil" is actually worse? Instead of talking about an absurd, fantastical notion -- an evil god warped their souls -- we just say orcs are uncivilized, warlike and ruled by their passions
because of their inferior culture. *Waves at colonialism* Congrats, you have jumped out of Tolkien's frying pan into the acid pit of colonial thinking. If only there was some strong person to bring culture to these primitives . . . Or perhaps the don't need to be civilized? How about a nice story about their virtues? Surely these savages have nobility?
Oh, like this from WotC:
"Meanwhile, the jungle-dwelling Lorendrow “draw their wisdom from the environment; the generosity of earth; the mastery of sky and the complex harmony of the forest.â€
Yeah, some jungle dwellers who are closer to the earth. Nope, no chance of a noble savage trope emerging from that template! Good save, WotC. Well done, you.
Again, quoting Sturevant:
"Making “races†like orcs and dark elves inherently evil does two things. First, it presents a world in which good and evil are so simplistic that an entire culture, race, or species can be inherently evil."
Two things: a) fuck you b) same sentiment but with let me expand a bit:
A much greater influence on Tolkein than scientific racism was theology -- old school Catholics believed (some still believe) that babies are born with original sin. Evil = corruption, Adam corrupted the souls of humanity. Babies literally have a stain on their soul that needs to be washed away in a baptismal ceremony. This idea isn't any less sophisticated than the protestant notions that challenged it and become dominant. But idiots like Sturevant don't realize that by declaring inherent evil as a less sophisticated notion than his preferred alternative he is simply secularizing a papist-protty disagreement. This is the very essence of Whiggish history, my good historian.
As an anti-fascist, as someone whose politics are more left than thou, I honestly believe that WotC is making things worse by switching from magical / spiritual evil to cultural evil. They are making the biggest mistake since the Matizca setting. Stop the move towards colonial thinking WotC!
Lolth corrupted the souls of the drow, Eilistraee offers them a spiritual baptism. If you lose that you are left with stories of noble savages, less advanced cultures and morally bankrupt societies. Or, to say the same thing, with the ideology of colonialism.
/rant
