Any one of the things wrong with the book would merit an eyeroll and maybe a “yikes”…
But all together, it just adds up to a very strong argument for the use of a good, educated editor.
9 Likes
Because a right winger just calls me racial slurs to my face
A liberal simply justifies systemic effects of racism and avoids accountability when push comes to shove
It’s why MLK Jr insisted the largest obstacle to racial integration and harmony in the US is the white moderate in his letter from Birmingham jail
12 Likes
Depends on the right winger. As I said, there are right wingers who will try to use subtext to say it, then deny them ever saying it. Come to Australia, our right wing parties are full of them. The Murdoch press does it all the time. Whether it is from Sky News Australia to Fox News.
But my point still stands. You shouldn’t use baseless generalizations because of a few bad apples.
3 Likes
The letter from Birmingham Jail stands
Welcome to US political landscape that shapes the ideologies and behaviors of these devs
5 Likes
I think you are missing the point.
You shouldn’t use baseless generalizations. By doing so you are acting no better then they are.
8 Likes
This is meaningless nonsense that lacks analysis of systems and structural effects of racism and posits that all racism is merely personal and individual when it is not
9 Likes
There have been articles writtten about how progressive white people can struggle to understand their own privilege and racism.
12 Likes
Which we are quite literally seeing in these attempts to defend, deflect, and pivot the book
10 Likes
Let me ask you this. Based on what you know about me from these forums. Am I one of these cowardly lying white liberals that you claim that I am from your generalized statement?
I do agree that there are indeed white liberals who do struggle to understand their own privilege and racism. And what has gone on with this book is an example of that. However I do not agree that it is okay to paint ALL white liberals as such with a blanket generalized statement. It is a toxic line of thinking often used by the right to justify their point of views.
1 Like
No you are not, as you would probably not claim your great great great great great great grandma was Aboriginal Australian to attempt to evade accountability
If you aren’t spineless, then the generalization naturally doesn’t apply to you.
Alas the above situation is a recurring thing in the US
Ergo why the Cherokee Princess Great Grandma is a whole trope of US political discourse that even Elizabeth Warren has done
12 Likes
I follow a simple philosophy and it’s kept me out of trouble. If you’re freaking out about it, than you’re part of the problem/part of the group that people are talking about.
My friend put white privelage in a really good perspective since most people think that it means you been handed everything in life. It mostly means that in a largely white society, people who are white are generally treated better and their word is generally believed more than if a POC said the same thing. A white person isn’t going to suffer the same consequences for comitting the same crime as a POC, etc.
It’s a bit simple, but correct me if I missed anything
3 Likes
This might sound like “white privilege”, even more so since I am a white cis male (and it probably is). But in a weird way I do have some understanding of being a minority in society where things are made difficult for me. Thankfully I was born after punishing children for being born left handed was no longer allowed but my Auntie experienced the tail end that. Being forced to write right handed all because of a stupid myth that left handed people were the spawn of the devil or some BS like that.
it is definitely not the same thing as what POC have experienced throughout western history. left handed people weren’t ripped from their homes and forced into slavery. But knowing that history does allow me to sympathize with POC a lot more than I should given that I did grow up in a white Christian family. Right handed bias is a thing!!!
If anyone does find what I have just said as offensive that is not my intent and I do apologize.
1 Like
Bias against left-handed people is not a small issue. Forcing left-handed people to write with their right-hand is harmful. It still affects language, to this day, as well. “Sinister” meant “on the left side” in Latin, but is used to just mean “evil,” for example.
7 Likes
Yeah. So I habitually reveal as little about myself behind the keyboard as possible. Because of scenes like this. Watching people argue “but this can’t be racism because fantasy” or “it can’t be racist because it was unintentional” is, frankly, making me more sick to my stomache than the fact this got printed in the first place. Cope-bro likely didn’t know what he was doing or how it looked to POC who are regularly subjected to intrinsic racist depictions in media. That doesn’t change how it reads, but whatever.
But y’all defending that in spite of POC telling you how it looks, why it looks that way, and how it’s a problem? I just can’t with you.
At least most of those making that argument are the usual suspects.
16 Likes
I do feel bad about the whole Zekhan thing. I admittedly wasn’t looking at from Baals POV like I normally try to do.
I got nothing else other than feeling like a horrible person. 
2 Likes
I feel like you guys are reading a bit too much into what is clearly the incompetent efforts of someone who likely didn’t care much about the subject matter and/or was the beyond the point of being able to focus due to compounded idiocy over the years. Keep in mind that this author was the ‘Blizzard historian’, which to me says he got the job mostly due to nepotism and has been asleep at the wheel for some time.
The tweets are the reaction of someone who hasn’t actually been challenged in anything before, combined with, let’s face it, the general cesspool of melodramatic screeching that is Twitter in general. The racist implications are of course the worst part, but even removing those, as I said above, wouldn’t make the book any better in terms of the lore and story. Better in a moral sense? In a less ‘how far can I put my foot in my oft-flapping mouth today’ kind of way? Of course.
But if they actually knew their own lore then the racist overtones wouldn’t have even come to pass because they’d actually know what the hell a Shaman is. I don’t think this is deliberate, just so bereft of brainpower it’s possible that they need to truly commit all their mental faculties to breathing and walking at the same time.
7 Likes
Am I alone in thinking we’re reaching a point where Blizzard will get blamed for everything?
Yes, they have some very real problems but why can’t the author just accept the mix reaction? Not everyone is going to like everything you do.
Or am I missing something here?
2 Likes
The author wasn’t just some random hired to write it, they’re about as close to a loremaster position as one can get at Blizzard.
4 Likes
The the author is still at fault.
Right?
Many WoW devs in Vanilla apparently did not know where the Dark Portal was supposed to be, and people often mistakenly referred to the Forsaken as the Scourge, according to that one Staats book from long ago.