Diversity in Roleplays. Is it such a difficult thing to do?

[logastellus]

I've been seeing in roleplays and I know that others have seen it as well that there is always one or two specific races that are always being used when it comes to faceclaims. And I find it very...unpleasing and somewhat annoying. I don't like how I or someone else is the only person who uses a different race while others use one specific one. (i.e I or a person uses an African American face claim and everyone else uses Caucasians). Guys there are other races you can use instead of just one specific race. I know I do try to use other races but what's the problem? Do you feel uncomfortable using other races for faceclaims? Are you scared that others will become angry at your for that? It's alright to express your feelings and opinions. So how do you feel about there not being enough diverity in roleplays?
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[Rurnur]

I think that people are just naturally going to make characters based upon their own race, because it's more comfortable for them. In my opinion, "lack of diversity" is not an issue. Would you prefer if we had this artificial setup of 1 white character, 1 black character, 1 Asian, etc, until you can check off all the little boxes, or if everyone just made the character they feel is appropriate for the plot and for themselves as a roleplayer? It would be a little unfair to look down upon a person, just because they refuse to inject this forced "diversity" into a roleplay, regardless of their personal preferences.


Though of course, there would be some exceptions, if you're in Egypt *cough* Gods of Egypt *cough* then it'd be a little awkward if each character is a white American. If it just doesn't make sense or feels forced, then yeah, you might want to step out of your comfort zone for a moment.

 

[Nyxione]

While I find that diversity is nice to have in a role play, I also find it quite logical for majority of the cast to be one race based on where the role play is set. I mean, for a role play that's set in let's say Philippines, it makes perfect sense for majority of the cast to be Filipinos. So, it doesn't really peeve me when there is little diversity, however, it does peeve me when there's no diversity at all. Personally I have no qualms about making a character of a race different from the rest.

 

[Aldur]

Someone did tell when I asked them the same thing that they are afraid not to offend anyone so they don't bother. Most dominant races I've seen RPed are Asian and Caucasian. It really is a little weird. Also, most RPs I've seen have massive influences from either western culture or Asian culure (specifially Japanese, but I blame aime for that.)

 

[LegoLad659]

Huh. You know, to be completely honest, I never actually thought about it. I use anime-style pictures for pretty much all of my characters, and while a lot of them are the same race, I'm sure there are some that are different. I just never considered the possibility before, is all.

 

[Dark Sanctuary]

For me in RPs, I usually tend to see what I can mix and match with to create a character. Like, I'm fine with picking varieties though it will have to depend on how much I can sorta put myself in that characters shoes.

 

[Morris]

There are literally dozens upon dozens of reasons why people would stick to playing relatively few ethnicities. Maybe they just cannot associate and identify with a character that they believe to be too different from their own values and mentality. Maybe they fear that they come off as cliche'd and stereotypical. Maybe they would consider it a form of cultural appropriation, or simply improper in general. Maybe they are worried of ticking someone off, especially since nowadays one can generate so much backlash for simply using a wrong expression in a wrong context, and clarifications in hindsight are seldom accepted.


This is especially relevant in Modern/Historical RPs. Because really, while the potential is enormous, could a white person really grasp, say, the role of an african-american slave in the american civil war? Or a christian man play a muslim janissary, whom were taken from their parents at a young age and indoctrinated into servitude? Can this really be done without raising some very disturbing implications, and flipping some brain-switches?


I believe in open-mindedness, but not everyone is able to abide a golden rule: if something ticks you, mention it to partners. And if you spot something in an Rp that is not yours but you don't like it, just ignore it altogether and don't read it.


And returning to characters, some points I abide by and generally seem to work:


1. don't play something just because you want to be politically correct or somesuch - that's a fickle thing that can change anytime in definition. Play something because it interests you and you want to play it.


2. if it's fantasy/sci-fi, read the setting and abide by it. Even if factions/countries/regions/etc draw inspiration from real life parallel cultures, they do not equate, therefore there is no basis for random accusations as long as you're not going up against the setting's established rules. If it's historical/present era, do some research to enhance genuinity of cultural background.


3. in any and all cases: remember, ethnicity does NOT define personality. Upbringing and socializing does, so as long as you can justify a character's behaviour with valid points, you are not stereotyping.


Just my two cents on the topic.

 

[Paranoid Android]

People almost always go with their own. Do you see lots of western culture depicted in Japanese media? Sure, there's Metal Gear Solid, Cowboy Bebop and others, but they usually just stick to Japan.


I think some variety is nice, but the GM shouldn't force the players to use certain genders or races for it. After all, that is only secondary to character development. Unless their gender/race really affects them, like a black man who lived on the ghetto or something. But most of the time these are just details.

 

[Frede]

I don't want to offend anyone so I rather stick to those that I'm familiar with or portrayed a lot in the medias. It's hard not to offend anyone in this era with tons of social matters and such. I also want to keep social matters away from my RPs. Other than that, personal preferences.


But, on another part, yes I always try my best to make my universe diverse.

 

[call me rae]

lol well i do fandoms a lot which is kind of a moot point because i'm playing in someone else's sandbox and adding diversity into that just to say i added diversity seems kind of silly to me. like i would think it would be even more offensive if i just put in someone of a different nationality so i could say i had "the token ethnic person/person of color/etc".


for my originals i'm not really focused on race. again i'm not going to just make an african american character to say i made an african american character. nor am i going to make someone of a different nationality just to say i did.


to me i'm more interested in your characters personality and what they bring to the roleplay. other than that they can be black,white,pink,purple,or a sentient toaster for all i care as long as they fit the plot and progress the story.

 

[LegoLad659]

a sentient toaster

You underestimate the power of toasterkind. THEY WILL RULE YOU ALL!

 

[welian]

I roleplay mostly white people because most of my faceclaims are white. Isn't that awful? That, and I always feel this pressure to emphasize race when I'm playing a PoC. I should just let go and not let tokenism get the best of me.

 

[Muggles]

A lot of people find it uncomfortable to play what they don't know. So, they play a character of their own race and gender. I used to be limited to playing characters of only my race, but I eventually started having diverse characters.

 

[Spacekitty]

I don't think a lack of diversity is a problem. People tend to play what race they are. I'm white and therefore I play (when im playing as a human) a Caucasian. Its not because I dislike other races or are simply afraid to play as them, it's just what comes. Its almost automatic. Sure, I've had and played as non-Caucasian characters and it was fine, no different (Not any "harder' is what I mean) than playing as a Caucasian. That being said, when people only play as their own race, its not an issue along as it's not for some sort of extremist reason. Perhaps they don't see a need to force diversity- I sure don't.


Forcing diversity just to be "diverse" is essentially just over the top PC

 

[Grey]

Because most of the RPs on the site are (and this fine) pure escapism and power-fantasy. People want idealized versions of themselves or to mimic characters they love in the media they consume. Given the just staggering overlap between roleplayers and hardcore anime fans, the mix of mostly Caucasian and Asian is unsurprising.


Naturally, of course, anyone from a position of privilege is going to balk at trying to respectfully portray a character from a more oppressed or unfamiliar ethnicity - that impulse is probably quite a noble one. Fear is abundant and confidence, sadly, is not, and I can understand erring on the side of silence, so to speak, because I think we generally try to do less harm.


However! I am of the opinion that roleplaying is an excellent way to foster empathy and understanding. In fantasy RPs, untroubled by real-world history, the lack of diverse ethnicities is rather ridiculous. It's an entirely different cultural context and I think any rational person can appreciate that. As an example, it's very easy to forget that North American racial tensions do not represent the whole world because that troubled history is not present in the same way elsewhere. As a further example, I'm quite comfortable - as white Englishman - writing a black protagonist in my webserial because it is a fantasy world without a history of racial prejudices. By contrast, I wouldn't dream of trying to write an African-American protagonist in the modern day because I have no frame of reference for the depiction, and frankly those stories are not for me to tell.


Coming back to empathy and understanding, I think in a modern RP if everyone is willing to do the research and tread carefully, playing characters of other ethnicities than your own should allow you to examine things from a very different perspective depending on time period and location. It allows for a broader range of personal histories, biases, reactions, and plotlines.


I guess what I'm saying is that since it's not a commercial enterprise with far-reaching societal fallout, if someone isn't willing to put the effort in to do it right, it's not unfair that they avoid it entirely. That said, I think we should all be more willing both to criticize each other politely and to accept that criticism, rather than be afraid to try anything.

 

[Deadkool]

"Poor Man's" Problem: Finding unmarked faceclaims in the age group you're looking for is difficult. It gets harder when looking for a minority. Speaking of which, does anyone have any good sites for faceclaims?

 

[call me rae]

"Poor Man's" Problem: Finding unmarked faceclaims in the age group you're looking for is difficult. It gets harder when looking for a minority. Speaking of which, does anyone have any good sites for faceclaims?

Real models?


Where Professional Models Meet Model Photographers - ModelMayhem


rphelper.tumblr.com/fcdirectory


lookalikesrp.tumblr.com/


Hot Looks, by Hype + Newness | LOOKBOOK


If your good at searching via keywords


pinterest.com ( i go general ex. blonde girl photography )


And lastly for cosplay


http://www.deviantart.com/browse/all/photography/people/


Now if your looking for anime


eshuushuu.net


zerochan.net


pinterest

 

[Deadkool]

 

[nebulousinsight]

I don't generally pick a set specific race when I roleplay. I do my best to alternate per roleplay, but I am a pale German female, and I often like playing close to my representation when RPing a modern or near-future sci-fi RP. Anything else, it just seems to be how I feel at the time. What strikes me as interesting. I browse paintings of realistic people and when I find one I like, I base my character around the photo, and the race of the person doesn't matter. I mean, it does, but I'm not searching in pictures for a specific race. Yeah. That. I word things poorly, sorry.

 

[LegoLad659]

"Poor Man's" Problem: Finding unmarked faceclaims in the age group you're looking for is difficult. It gets harder when looking for a minority. Speaking of which, does anyone have any good sites for faceclaims?

DeviantArt is my go-to place. And if I can't find what I'm looking for there, I just go to google.


How viable this method is compared to others, I couldn't tell you, but it's worked pretty well for me so far.

 

[Protagonist]

Springboarding off of Grey:


Many people (myself very much included) choose a character who's sort of vaguely like themselves or how they wish they were, or looks like a character they like. Ergo, it's not especially surprising.

 

[CyborgMerlin]

Let's get real for a minute here. I am Louisiana creole, meaning my ancestors come from many parts of the world, from Africa, to Europe, to the Americas, and a gene test suggests I may even have east Indian ancestors. While I cannot speak for anyone other than myself, this is how I feel about the subject:


I don't.


I don't care if my ethnicity is not represented. I don't care if a roleplay only uses one ethnicity. I don't care if other ethnicities are not represented.


Perhaps I'm biased, even as a "black" man growing up I never experienced "the struggle". Never faced outright prejudice. The concept of race was something never brought up in where in lived or where I worked. It was acknowledged sure, but it never played a major role in my life as no one seemed to judge me for what I was, and I never judged them. Only one time in my life I've been called "the 'n' word," I shrugged it off and laughed, because that six letter word meant nothing to me.


Diversity does not come from skin pigmentation. It doesn't come from trying to be "inclusive". It doesn't come from how you talk, how you walk or who your parents were. It comes from what you believe, how you feel, how you think, what you can do, and how you choose to live. Every human being is diverse from one another, and that is all that matters.

 

[Mayhem]

So I've noticed a lot of people have mentioned so far how everyone sticks to what's "familiar" and to what they feel comfortable with it. And that's very interesting, cause it applies to me in a very sad way: I'm from Latin America, and when I started roleplaying I only created WHITE characters. At that time I never though twice about it, it seemed like the "normal" thing to do. But now I know better, and I can tell you it's a fucked up, and sad thing to do. Because as a 12 year old girl the idea that "white" characters were the "norm" was ALREADY ingrained in my brain. At that time making a character like me, never even CROSSED my mind, it just felt weird. And I think that says a LOT about the lack of representation in role-plays, and how characters of colour are seeing as "out of place". Roleplaying a character of colour shouldn't be weird, or seen as creating a "token" character. PEOPLE OF COLOUR ARE EVERYWHERE, and we shouldn't need excuses or specific locations to tell their stories. So yeah, I invite you guys to respectfully explore diversity in your rpgs. THE WORLD NEEDS IT.

 

[logastellus]

So I've noticed a lot of people have mentioned so far how everyone sticks to what's "familiar" and to what they feel comfortable with it. And that's very interesting, cause it applies to me in a very sad way: I'm from Latin America, and when I started roleplaying I only created WHITE characters. At that time I never though twice about it, it seemed like the "normal" thing to do. But now I know better, and I can tell you it's a fucked up, and sad thing to do. Because as a 12 year old girl the idea that "white" characters were the "norm" was ALREADY ingrained in my brain. At that time making a character like me, never even CROSSED my mind, it just felt weird. And I think that says a LOT about the lack of representation in role-plays, and how characters of colour are seeing as "out of place". Roleplaying a character of colour shouldn't be weird, or seen as creating a "token" character. PEOPLE OF COLOUR ARE EVERYWHERE, and we shouldn't need excuses or specific locations to tell their stories. So yeah, I invite you guys to respectfully explore diversity in your rpgs. THE WORLD NEEDS IT.

I agree with you big time! I don't want to be in a role play where I'm the only person who has chose a person of color while every other CS is white or Asian(the reason being those afew the superior races used on this site). There is diversity all over the world and even online it won't hurt if you choose a different race to roleplay as.

 

[Mayhem]

@MidnightSoul I know exactly what you mean. Recently I was in this role-play were all the characters were locked in a room, and I shit you not: it was 9 white characters and my character who was biracial. And as the rp progressed I couldn't help but feel fucking weird, and part of me wanted to project that awkward feeling into my character (because WHO wouldn't feel weird and out place with that kind of ratio going on in a locked room??) but at the same time I wasn't sure if I should address the situation or not. So yeah, I think diversity NEEDS to be explored and addressed, and people shouldn't get all defensive or hostile when the subject is brought up. AND people shouldn't assume everybody is roleplaying what they feel is "familiar", because sometimes you role-play characters you FEEL you SHOULD be role-playing (as it happened to me).