So before I dig in, let me say a few things.
I’m sorry if I’ve come across aggressively. Too many people around here have argued that in-game racism and sexism is fine and should be kept around “for their fun”, and I’ve been pretty jumpy towards things resembling that. Add to that the aforementioned issues with typing and reading on a phone and some nuance has been lost. So again, I’m sorry for any aggro earlier.
I think the roadblock to understanding here is that people aren’t looking at, say, trolls and thinking “these are Jamaican/Dominican/Haitian/etc people”, but acknowledging that trolls are inspired by African Diaspora people, with some south american flair. The connections there are intended and clear, but nobody is looking at trolls as a factual representation of anyone; they are looking at them as charactatures.
But those groups do have some racially insensitive tropes and stereotypes associated with them; cannibalistic savages comes to mind. And one used from the 1930s to today is the poor, ignorant black kid taken under the wing of the wealthy, older white man and given culture. Starting usually with literacy, because of course the black kid never learned to read. This is such a normalized form of racism, you could probably think of at least one movie or TV show that has used it.
Trolls in WoW have not been depicted as illiterate at all. We have tablets with troll writings across most expacs where we have to collect them, make rubbings of them, etc. Even tribes like the Farraki who were in bad straights have them. Drakkari have them. Darkspear have them all in echo island. Troll literacy is established. And shaman, as the keepers of wisdom, would not be an exception.
So why is Zekhan the exception? Why didn’t his shaman trainers teach him? Why not the orcs he lived with?
Why did it have to be the old white man teaching the young POC-inspired kid culture?
Baal and myself and others aren’t saying this is tiki torch marching racism. We’re not saying that this is any reflection on African diaspora cultures.
But it undeniably relies on a normalized racist trope that is damaging to people by its normalization. Sean’s writing isn’t going to inspire a race war. If he apologized, racism wouldn’t be solved.
But we feel it should be called what it is.
I hope that offers clarity.