Quiet Racism

If you haven’t heard, there’s a new edition of the classic role-playing game, Dungeons & Dragons. Once again, geeks worldwide can pretend to be wizards and elves and dwarfs plundering forgotten tombs in search of treasure. Since the 1970’s, D&D has been creating empowerment fantasies for millions of people, many of whom were and are at the fringes of “normal” society.

As one of those geeks, I delved into the fourth edition of the world’s most famous role-playing game with interest and excitement. But, as much as the game’s creators tried to make it fresh and fun for a new generation, there are some disturbing, old ideas embedded in the game’s surtext.

Players each create a character – a person who populates the fantasy world D&D imagines – and the first choice they must make is the character’s race. They can choose to be classic fantasy tropes like humans, elves, and dwarfs, as well as new choices like dragonborn and tieflings. Each race grants unique advantages. Some make sense – dwarfs are naturally tougher, hewn as they are from the very earth, and dragonborn can breathe fire (or frost or acid or lightning).

But a great many of the racial traits are, quite frankly, racist. Elves, for instance, are naturally more perceptive while Halflings are good at stealing. Worse, every race favors certain classes (occupations in the D&D world). “Play an elf if you want to be a member of a race that favors the ranger, rogue, and cleric classes,” the rules read. And every race description has a similar sentence. Oh, you can play any class you want (an improvement from previous editions where there were actually restrictions on what races could pursue any given profession), but the idea that certain races should follow certain career paths is very real and stated explicitly.

One can imagine how this might translate to the real world. “Play an African-American if you want to be a member of a race that favors the musician or athlete classes.” “Play a Native American if you want to be a member of a race that favors the casino manager class.” Those are stark, offensively racist statements. So why is it okay to make them in a fantasy game?

No doubt, the game’s designers – Rob Heinsoo, Andy Collins, and James Wyatt – were not deliberately attempting to promote racist thinking among D&D’s millions of fans. It likely never occurred to them there is a subtle message of “everyone needs to keep in their place” in the game they designed. And, the truth is, races in D&D are very different than in real life. A dwarf is a different kind of being than a human, whereas the differences between a black person and a white one are minor.

Still, making rules like “Elves are loyal and merry friends,” enforces the idea that “all those people are alike.” At a time when presidential politics have driven the issue of race back into the forefront of American thought, it’s sad that Hasbro is sending a message that, albeit inadvertently, promotes the kind of quiet racism that Barak Obama is trying to transcend as a presidential candidate.