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#DnD #UnpopularOpinion: orcs/drow/goblins being prone to evil doesn& #39;t have to be inherently racist. Wait don& #39;t go! Let me explain.
Race as in "the human race" is perhaps ill-fitting in modern common language, so we should really think of humans/orcs/elves/etc as "species" instead of "race" with all its implications.
In this light, orcs aren& #39;t really too different from, say, chromatic dragons.
A species might have just evolved a brain that doesn& #39;t do kindness very well or whatever. My brain cant detect other humans& #39; hidden thoughts very well.
A species might have just evolved a brain that doesn& #39;t do kindness very well or whatever. My brain cant detect other humans& #39; hidden thoughts very well.
Of course, this all hinges on whether you believe (as i do) that morality is objective. That is, that some acts are inherently evil, unjustifiable. To a subjectivist, such acts might be seen not just as justifiable, but as desirable, as good.
This is not the same as absolutism. It might be unclear if a certain thing is good or bad or something else. And that& #39;s ok.
And none of this is to say there can& #39;t ever be a good goblin or good red dragon. I mean goblins and dragons and magic exist in these worlds after all.
And none of this is to say systemic racism, or racism in art, or racism in games doesn& #39;t exist. I mean, I have Oriental Adventures for 3.5 (neither my wife nor I bought it so it& #39;s a bit of a mystery how it landed on our shelf).
Bonus unpopular opinion: in my campaign, half-elves, half-orcs, half-dragons etc are usually infertile like most hybrid animals and many hybrid plants. It literally never comes up - and it probably shouldn& #39;t - but im really into biology.
"fool!" you might say "know you nought how racist so-and-so was whence creating the whatever!?" yes, and im not defending racism, just, i don& #39;t see wrong in having green humanoid monsters in my make-believe.
