koldun-noir
Inactive
That's what I was trying to get across, thank you! It.. really isn't a big deal. Nobody is THAT special or different, we are all equal in my eyes.
Other Minority Representation in RPing?
- Thread starter Pandaskel
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That's what I was trying to get across, thank you! It.. really isn't a big deal. Nobody is THAT special or different, we are all equal in my eyes.
Dark lord steel
One Thousand Club
Probably because I am straight and white (actually my default characters are female instead of male) and I live in a society and an area that is prominently (probably at least 75%, probably more like 90% considering I live more out of the way) white. So this is what I've seen everyday for the last twenty years when I look outside, so of course I have learned to view this as the default.
rae2nerdy
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I think there should be threadmarks? They put a link of a post at the top of the page. But I haven't used them so I'm a little shaky on how they work. That said thanks
I think it's something a lot of people misunderstand when it comes to writing minorities.They get so afraid that they won't be able to write for the other that they don't realize that skin-color and sexuality don't make people other, the way in which their raised does.
Pandaskel
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And that is textbook ignorance.
koldun-noir
Inactive
Well.. maybe you should wake up and realize it isn't the default and not everything has to be a big deal or you have to be special to write a character different than you. I'm sorry if I seem aggressive but you come off so.. ignorant.
Dark lord steel
One Thousand Club
Why? I'm used to seeing something, so that's ignorant?
I'm sorry if I think gay and people of colour have their own culture that shouldn't just be barged into.
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koldun-noir
Inactive
You sound ignorant bc that's not how it works, I like it when ppl embrace LGBT bc I am. We are not aliens and are that protective.
Pandaskel
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Yo, calm down, keep it civil.
It's ignorant because you're assuming that your "normal" is universal. You can combat this by admitting to your own ignorance and becoming the opposite through open-mindedness and education, not getting defensive.
Melpomene
Writer of Tragedy|Art by ROYTHEART|
Thank you for this! Having a different race/gender/sexuality is not special at all, it just seems so because everyone thinks the default is straight white male, which it isn't and shouldn't be.
koldun-noir
Inactive
I agree with above me, I am white myself and beleive we all deserve equality and my color is not default it's fucking 2019 and if you're still stuck in the old days, begone. We all need to embrace eachother while remaining respectful, nobody should have to have a reason to be themselves. Besides, most LGBT and POC want others to be open.
Pandaskel
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THIS
rae2nerdy
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(Slight edits for clarity. 2/27 )
So as a quick aside "coloured" is not a polite way to refer to people of different skin color. The term is person (or if you want to get gender specific man/woman) of color. Coloured makes it sound like you think X people should use a different water fountain or something.
Now that being the case you made this point yourself earlier when talking to me. People are not a monolith. So therefore people of color do not have their own specific culture any more than white people do.
Would you assume that straight white people in Britian, America, France, and Australia all had the same culture purely because they were straight and white? Of course not. Hell even in America just being the same skin color and sexuality doesn't mean you will have the same cultural upbringing. Life is very different in the South than it is in the West. And growing up white in a neighborhood of other white people is different than growing up white in a more diverse community.
So that is all the people of this thread are trying to get across. That culture has no great link to skin color (or sexuality as all my previous points work for LGBTQA people as well).
So if you only want to write people of your own culture you can do that without excluding different skin colors and sexuality. If you want to write different cultures you can do that without changing skin color or sexuality.
Now that doesn't mean you have to change, play whomever makes you happy. Just that when it comes to minority characters you don't have to give them some special "culture" in order to justify their existence.
DISCLAIMER : So as we are talking culture my top point about Coloured = Not Polite could be something culturally relevant to Rural/Southern America. As around here that's basically the polite way of being racist. Kind like the nice version of the uncultured word that sounds like Tigger. Unless your like 85 or something but even then folks around here would be like, "Now Pops you can't say that anymore. It ain't polite."
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Dark lord steel
One Thousand Club
Sorry, I guess I got a bit annoyed about this. It's always felt like interfering in something where I have no right to, so that's why I've avoided it. I got frustrated because I avoided playing these characters out of respect for their communities, and now people are saying that's wrong and I should've just done it anyways.
koldun-noir
Inactive
THANK YOU! Hopefully you got some good out of this and can open up more so this doesn't happen again. I don't like arguing, but I do stay firm to my beleifs.
rae2nerdy
left site
And the thing is if you want to respect someone you have to start by not assuming that you know what they are thinking and feeling. So rather than assuming that there is some closed door community that will judge you for trying to write outside your own personal experience trying just asking people questions.
Make a thread like this one where people can share their opinions and give you tips and advice for writing a new kind of character. And be prepared for there to be some arguments and a lot of Person X says this and Person Y says that. Because people are all different and we all approach things from a different perspective.
But at least by starting a dialogue you aren't just assuming that what you feel is how other people will feel as well.
(Man I need to like write these up in emails. Another edit, sorry guys.)
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adrian_
julie my beloved 🥰
lol im just a fuckin whitey and play myself mostly
its not really that complicated imo
its not really that complicated imo
rae2nerdy
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Like literally yourself? How's that work out? I always feel like I would get too stuck in my own head doing that. Like too busy overthinking my exact reaction to the events going on to enjoy myself.
Dark lord steel
One Thousand Club
Playing self inserts can be pretty fun, especially for more casual role plays
rae2nerdy
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I wasn't knocking it I just do all fantasy or superhero roleplays. So I would be way to literal minded to enjoy the premise. Like omg my fat antisocial ass has magic? what would I do? ..... hmm is there a way to magic a netflix account, asking for me.
Dark lord steel
One Thousand Club
I do mostly fandom and fantasy interspliced with horror, which sometimes has some pretty funny consequences. I ended up being chased down a corridor by giant (pink) spiders in one of them, so I hid in a broom cupboard and wouldn't come out.
adrian_
julie my beloved 🥰
Not really myself, just characters I can identify with.
rae2nerdy
left site
See I am like way to analytical for that. My worlds got to be coherent and make sense. Plus I'm a giant weenie and hate horror. Although back on topic making me a protagonist would be a bomb ass way to bring minority representation.
Latina Vampire
Fat
Aromantic
Female
Seriously I could work with this.
Dark lord steel
One Thousand Club
Oh the pink spiders were there for a reason.
Don't know what it was though, it was one of my sillier role plays I just did with a friend to get into role playing.
Idea
The Pun Tyrant
I'm going to give an answer that may be a bit rude, but is also I think the best way I can put this: I just dont' care. I don't think it matters whether my privately made event with friends meets a given quota of ethnicities and skin colors. If anything, I'm weary of playing with people who do have this kind of thing in their head when they are playing, because I know that its a matter of time before they start bludgeoning on other people's harmless fun, or at least so is the impression I'm given.
To me this is a lot like that question "why are anime characters white?". The answer is, they are not. In fact if anything they are japanese, which would make them distinctly non-white, but even then I don't think they are made to be X race, that kind of thing is so abysmally irrelevant in most situations, at least for story telling purposes, that I can't phantom why someone outside of those circumstances should stress over that kind of thing.
Edit: Most of my characters that have any kind of real world ethnicity are either white European / American or Japanese. I did once make a character from Egypt though, dont' recall what were the circumstances. Overall, I believe a character's personal experience overrides whatever country experience may be a lot of the time, at least in the simplifed world fo characters.
To me this is a lot like that question "why are anime characters white?". The answer is, they are not. In fact if anything they are japanese, which would make them distinctly non-white, but even then I don't think they are made to be X race, that kind of thing is so abysmally irrelevant in most situations, at least for story telling purposes, that I can't phantom why someone outside of those circumstances should stress over that kind of thing.
Edit: Most of my characters that have any kind of real world ethnicity are either white European / American or Japanese. I did once make a character from Egypt though, dont' recall what were the circumstances. Overall, I believe a character's personal experience overrides whatever country experience may be a lot of the time, at least in the simplifed world fo characters.
Shireling
A Servant of King and Country
I think if you actually conducted like a scientific survey there would be, at the very least, an overrepresentation of sexual minorities in the character variety on RPN as opposed to the general population. Not sure if that follows for ethnic minorities, although there are certainly more Japanese or East Asian characters than make up the general population. Not that it really matters.
In response to the original question about race/ethnicities, the perception that characters are majority Eurodescended is likely caused by a) lots of East Asian characters that are fair skinned b) a majority white community on RPN (if I had to guess) and c) there is a perception that a white person cannot understand a non-white perspective and thus trying to portray a non-white character is potentially a cause of offense.
Some other ethnicities that are probably overrepresented as compared to the general American population: Russians, actual British Islanders, and Germans.
In response to the original question about race/ethnicities, the perception that characters are majority Eurodescended is likely caused by a) lots of East Asian characters that are fair skinned b) a majority white community on RPN (if I had to guess) and c) there is a perception that a white person cannot understand a non-white perspective and thus trying to portray a non-white character is potentially a cause of offense.
Some other ethnicities that are probably overrepresented as compared to the general American population: Russians, actual British Islanders, and Germans.
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