Racial Stereotyping

The most relevant thing I could find was a thread from 2016 (its called "Some problematic themes that should be addressed"), and while I agree with some of the points brought up about racism, I disagree with the argument that these tribes or races in the game breed anti semitism. I don't think that was the point of wynncraft, and I think they do a good job in transforming some of these old ideas of orcs being black people into something that has nothing to do with that. They are just orcs, they don't represent any race or thing anymore.

The problems I have with wynncraft is that they tell the stories of various minorities in the first place. I still am reconciling with myself if telling these stories are morally correct, and what would need to change about wynncraft in order for them to tell these stories. For now though, I am stuck with quite a bit of questions:

- Is it promoting a stereotype to have builds of minorities, and create a fictitious culture of said minorities through quests, mobs, and other content?
- How does viewing the native tribespeople of various regions in the game affect the player's perception of reality?
- What would wynncraft do if it suddenly couldn't have Innuit (I learned via one of the posts that Eskimo has a bad past and is offensive), Native Americans, Jungle Tribes, or other minorities in the game?
- Would they lose the playerbase (also money)?
- Am I promoting a stereotype by equating groups of people to fictional wynncraft groups?
- Does it matter if the person in charge of the content for a specific region involving a minority identifies with that minority? (Does it matter if a Hispanic Person creates the content for a fictional aztec empire)? Is it still a stereotype?
- Why does almuj and the desert region have more TNT than most other regions?
- Is it promoting a stereotype in the Enter the Dojo quest to use Chinese words and reference tranquility, dragons, and the inner fighter?
- On that note, does Karate Kid appropriate asian cultures? If it doesn't, whats the difference between
it and this wynncraft quest?
- Why are all the dwarves and elves white? (maybe they changed it idk but let me know if they did)

Thats about all that I could come up with, I might add more as I think about this. Hopefully at the end I, along with anyone else with similar questions, can come to a conclusion about this whole thing and have a suggestion on how to move wynncraft in the correct direction.

 

yes this is something called a "videogame" where stuff doesn't always make sense
if you don't think you can handle it then don't play.

 

I was beginning to be fine with the fanbase wanting to fuck the bird lady but then this came up

 

I cant quite grasp if this is a joke or not, srry if im dumb

 

if it was a joke it probably wouldn't be in general suggestions

 

Yes

TRUE

Absolutely

Correct

Yep

wait

Affirmed

It does

fucking racists

any other anti-semitist black orcs in the chat

 

Take everything with a grain of salt and enjoy the game. You’ll feel much more happier which I don’t think you’re having much of that right now.

 

Judging by this users only other post, I'd say that there's a 50/50 chance they're shitposting or it's genuine. If they come back to argue more and bring up some weird points, they're 95% shitposting. If they don't respond or concede, they're 95% genuine.

 

A very interesting view. I really can appreciate Wynncraft even more knowing about these minor details the Content team/builders have put in, which I have missed previously. Thank you for bringing them up. I will have a spare class put in the elvish & dwarven regions to be able to enjoy the better company more frequently.
/s

 

na its fine i just was trying to grapple with this whole thing hopefully this ends up helping myself as well as other people come to a better understanding of some kind

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Yea thats probably a good way to start going about things. I didn't intend this to be a message of me dropping the game or anything.

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This wasn't my intention, I don't think CT is racist. The general problem I have is that I don't know if its morally correct to appropriate a culture, even though the cultures in the game are depicted as good people.

I'll try to work on the phrasing of the statement above, not sure if it represents my opinion well.

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:D ty

 

cant believe the ct is made up of entirely racists, specifically anti semitist, black, orc racists

 

Gonna preface this reply here by saying that I am white, and please call me out if I mess anything up.

That statement is easy for white people like myself can say, but people of color are bombarded with racist stereotypes in everyday life. They shouldn't have to suffer through them in videos games meant for fun! These stereotypes and cultural appropriation are harmful everywhere, the context of a video game doesn't change that.

First off, thank you for bringing this up. I will admit, I have been a bit uneasy about some cultural depictions in the game but have never put much thought of it until now.
Second, I wanted to share what my Racism & White Privilege Professor said when I asked if ATLA was cultural appropriation. They replied by saying that as long as the adapted cultures were treated with respect and accurately depicted, it was fine. Don't take this as an end all answer though, given the fact that my memory sucks and that it is about another genre. I'll be sure to shoot my Professors a message about Wynncraft and how it depicts certain cultures and races though!

Yes, it does matter. If Wynncraft is making content directly inspired from real world cultures, ethnicities, and races, it should be done so with the instruction from a person of those groups. Otherwise, negative stereotypes can worm their way in, whether intentional or not- and it can end up being incredibly offensive!

"Eskimo" is an outdated and offensive term- I suggest using Inuit, Indigenous People, and/or Native American instead.

Crikey. I never noticed that before, but I guess that's just my internalized racism. It's likely that the content team had implicit biases when designing the Almuj region, which lead to a surplus of TNT.

My instincts tell me that if these quests were designed by someone who is Asian, then it is fine.. But take my opinions and premonitions with a grain of salt.

I never noticed this before, but now that you say it outloud it feels so obvious! I can't say for certain, but maybe they are all white because the content team is taking direct inspiration from LOTOR, where everybody is white..? Whatever the reasons may be, I hope that the team goes back and adds diversity to these mythical races.

If there are white people on the CT, then there is racism in the team. You can still have good intentions and do racist things (I myself can attest to that), but to be white is to be racist- racism is prejudice plus institutional power, and everyone, both white people and people of color, has prejudice, but not everyone has institutional power.

 

thats the spirit

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I think the accurately depicted part of what your professor said is a good way to get a holding, I'll think about that one!

I saw the part about Eskimo being an outdated term, I'll try use indigenous people instead. Didn't know it was offensive, will edit the original post!

 

you messed something up

 

As a ‘person of colour’ i hope this is satire

 

what he do though?

 

Eskimo literally means "people with the snowshoes" it's an umbrella term for the people who live in north canada, greenland, alaska and russia. How is it offensive? It's like saying native american instead of the tribe name.

 

I live in northern Canada and some people here will definitely take offence to being called Eskimo. Probably even more people if you go into the communities. It is an outdated term to the point that Edmonton’s CFL team needs to change their name as to not be offensive. @Azu is correct terms such as Inuit or whichever native group the person is from is the correct terminology to use.

 

There's no such thing as cultural appropriation, anyone who points out cultural center is basically gatekeeping culture. Cultures are ment to be spread around and evolve, that's how the italians got pasta, the asians got peppers, europe got potatoes, the english got curry, that's how everyone got their alphabet.

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As I said it's an umbrella term (and how exactly is it offensive?) If you live in Canada it makes sense they want to be called inuits because the eskimos of canada are inuits. It's like how you are both canadian and north american. As I said it's an umbrella term. Also how is just having a name offensive?

 

There is no self-awareness in this post, is there.