some of you are not ready for this discussion but. the fact that the animal/anthro/beast races in most fantasy settings are almost always coded as poc is. kinda racist. and its particularly egregious when the coding attributes aspects of black and brown ppl to said beast races, like we dont already have enough of a history of being exoticized, dehumanized, and compared to animals by whites. im tired of seeing white ppl make bank on this like coding a race of creature-people as black or brown is such a kool new unthought of idea. man i just want white ppl to stop giving beast races black traits and hairstyles, acknowledge thats fundamentally racist and maybe try taking another approach with their own wordbuilding and stuff. idk what to tell yall expect that you should be able to create settings in which beast races arent blatant and dehumanizing references to poc, and dont have to encompass racist caricatures and stereotypes that exist in the real world.
i think, in many instances, white creators sometimes do this in a misguided attempt to make it “different’ or w/e…as if believe that making races with specific cultural coding and references from poc and nonwhite cultures into creatures instead of actual humanoids somehow subtracts from that fact? like “look these arent actually black or brown people theyre cats/lizard/etc people!” when really, even if it may not be the intent, due to the fact that black and brown traits are being heavily ascribed to said beast races in the lore and wordbuilding, what you get is just another instance of white people dehumanizing and misrepresenting peoples and cultures that they do not fully understand. intent doesnt necessarily justify or excuse results.
ykw. if it were just like. one or a rare few instances of this happening. i wouldnt really be speaking on this? but its a fairly consistent issue across the board. when there are beast races in fantasy settings, theyre almost always accompanied by lore containing copious and blatant references to cultures of colour. i understand that its an uncomfortable truth that many ppl have avoided discussing, but if youre a white creator and you feel uncomfortable or called out for this, then just think of how black, brown, and/or indigenous ppl feel when we see our cultures referenced blatantly in fantasy, reduced to creatures and/or problematic caricatures, time and time again.
if your fantasy wordbuilding cannot exist without dehumanizing black/brown/indigenous people (and while this happens with a myriad of different people and cultures. im merely speaking for my own here), then perhaps sit down and ask yourself why that is.
your reaching really really hard
- the imga in elder scrolls are an obvious antiblack caricature, down to the gorilla imagery, with them imitating the aldmer the way colonized africans “imitated’’ their white colonizers, and utilizing antiblack stereotypes about “wide idiotic grins.”
- the khajiit in elder scrolls are coded as a bunch of things, including romani, and the khajiit are often regarded as unscrupulous, being homeless/migrant, thieves, and drug addicts, etc. – stereotypes present in anti-romani racism.
- the dunmer literally use islamic art and imagery from MENA/SWANA cultures, as well as east asian, and they land theyre from is called the barbaric and alien east.” ive literally heard ppl say shit like this about the region im from. its not a fucking coincidence or a “reach” to see those statements paired with a race of ppl who deadass use words borrowed from akkadian, utilize Islamic imagery in their architecture, their culture, and even religious phrases adapted from muslim sayings.
- the bosmer are coded as a lot of things, including indigenous, and theyre often reduced to being feral and animal-like. which. is a sentiment present in a lot of anti-indigenous racism.
- the qunari in dragon age are also coded as black and brown MENA/SWANA ppl, and theyre also depicted with the orientalist stereotype of “evil barbaric easterners.”
- the haradrim in tolkien’s work are literally described as black and brown people who come from a desert; theyre literally said to be evil, “lesser” dark-skinned people who are regularly put in contrast to the “good” men of the west, who are more often than not described to look like white people with fair skin and light hair. funny how that works.
and i could go on forever. there are many, many more examples of this in different fandoms/settings, and i’d encourage other people of colour to add on with examples i’ve missed.
while i will grant you that some cases are obviously not as egregious as others, and that obviously not all fantasy writers are like. rabidly antiblack or likely to physically attack poc in the street or w/e, the replication and misrepresentation of nonwhite cultures in fantasy settings that render them as animal-people paired with racist stereotypes that just get regurgitated in their lore is shitty and needs to be addressed.
also, if there were more animal/anthro people in fantasy who were culturally and racially coded after white folks? itd be slightly less of an issue, although im personally not going to dismiss white writers making obvious antiblack references in their work. i gotta wonder why people want to see and defend racist caricatures in their media so bad.
anyway. that said.