Just for some levity:
My person, do I ever feel this!! Most of my posts are typed on a real crappy phone from work. Where I’m masked. While wearing glasses. That fog up from the mask. Typing is already a challenge.
But really autocorrect??? I type out Arthas often enough that you should just freaking know I do not mean Martha!!! Why on Thrall’s green earth do you pick motherflipping Martha for Arthas?? Stahhhppp!!!
Still getting caught up.
omw lmao 
My issue, which has been the same from the start and I’ve explained like 10 times:
These are fictional races based on stereotypes of real life races.
Acknowledging that is fine. Even relating to them is fine.
But when you start accepting that they ARE that race because of the stereotypes, you are not only undermining the progress those groups have made throughout time, but you’re essentially saying those stereotypes are the only thing that make that race that race.
Are the Native Americans only about tribal wear and protecting the earth? No. They have a very rich culture about many many things.
Do all people in Africa live in mud huts with no electricity? No. Not only is Africa massive with tons and tons of cultures, each one is unique and special. Just like choosing “generic white” as the basis for humans, choosing “generic African” for other in game races is terrible.
But by saying something that happens to an in game character of that race is racist to the real life race its a charicature of, you’re disregarding every other thing that makes that race or ethnicity them. You’re essentially saying only the stereotypes matter. This is what I mean when I say if you believe that, there’s racism there.
Now, if for instance, they made it so all trolls were illiterate? 1000% racist.
But individual traits in characters are not racist unless those traits exist BECAUSE of their race.
The stereotypes the races are built on are 1000000% racist, I’ve never denied that.
My issue has always been about the people who are commenting on an individual characters flaw and calling it racist.
Now if it becomes a trend, say they introduce a couple more trolls and they are also illiterate with no explanation, that’s racist.
But individual traits are not racist unless those traits exist because of their race. As far as well know, zekhan not being able to read has nothing to do with him being a troll.
I’d even argue the fact zekhan knows more than one language is probably a part of it. We don’t know what language he was trying to read. I have a friend who speaks fluent mandarin but can’t read anything in mandarin. So if zekhan was trying to read a book that was written in thalassian, for instance, it would make sense he couldn’t read it. He might not be able to read so they could have a short story point later on where he learns as a firm of character development, etc.
I’m hopeful this makes sense to some of you, cause I’m genuinely one of the least racist people you’ll meet.
I typed my city name yesterday, something I do constantly.
It autocorrected to:
Erotica
Attorney
Also
Albeit
Wish
Before I finally got the right word. 
I disagree. Blizzard has made a choice to hear story discussions :
Blizzard decided to appoint a council that is vehemently against non white and glbt representation. At nearly every turn.
And if we disagree, as common rabble not privy to the council - we are cyber bullies.
Stereotypes (ie Caricatures) AND THE ACTUAL REAL LIFE CULTURES
BOTH OF WHICH makes them representations
Which is the POINT.
The line between “racist trope” and “representation” is nuance and who is doing it.
Tolkein based his Dwarves on antisemitic tropes (ergo the Fatal Flaw of Greed, which he admits to in his letters) but also made them heroic in the story.
WoW added on Scottish/Irish/German elements, some of which are stereotypes, but some of which are explicit cultural representations (eg River Dance, eg Pict face paint, etc).
If Blizzard made all dwarves violent alcoholics who in-game were known for trying to blow up stormwind or abuse their families, and were constantly depicted as self destructive villains, that would also be inappropriate.
It’s 2022, stop giving Blizzard a pass for trite racist world-building upon the in-game races based on POC/Subaltern Peoples otherwise.
This argument is moot because April Copeland already confirmed that the intent was to make him completely illiterate and ignorant.
She briefly tried to spin it and then recanted and did a 180.
I am genuinely curious if you are part of any of the groups speaking about this, like for example I’m filipino so I am not but what I can do is listen to when people point things out, also I experience my own trials and run ins with racism or problematic things so I both take it seriously but I also think its an important thing to listen to the people of the communities in question when they speak out on topics that apply to them again because its a solidarity thing.
Again:
This is so wrong it’s not even funny. Half of our members are LGBTQ+.
No. You did not.
https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/906234294333218826/941894866508587038/maizou.png
No. I did not. Your message stayed for ALL to see.
I never even brought up this subject anywhere outside of Discord. I painted you as nothing. I tried to clear things up. You ignored me, then came back with an ultimatum.
Which is why we have a new policy on how we let people into the Discord after your threats. Good job, by the way.
… two out of five mods are LGBTQ+.
Like, real talk, I do really love when Discords that aren’t my Discord have blow out drama on the forums that I get to watch without having to worry about cleaning it up.
Achievement Unlocked: Start unnecessary drama.
Twitterverse is going to have content for days.
Yo, GDers are coming here in droves lol.
I love how everytime we get ONE person that has remotely any interest in the story in the council, some people in this community make it their life mission to bring them down.
Let this be a warning to anyone interested in joining the council in hopes of improving the story.
We are two for two here. Lets see who the third is going to be.
nah actually only kiraser was let in for story
DM’d him about his smack talk
giving him a few days to respond, but I got time
Okay but your discord is the best discord because while I can’t comment on this other situation going on, I know first hand your discord takes LGBTQ+ and other minorities safety / comfort seriously
Your intent is very clear Baal.
Good job on starting the drama though. Masterclass work, hopefully the new twitter followers are worth it.
You set a great example as to why no council member should EVER interact with users here.
Well done 
I’ve never actually been to story forums prior to this, and am a bit sad Ariel hasn’t posted it looks like in awhile, she was always telling me to check out the story forums, though I was surprised to see a thread on the council up I suppose it makes sense since its story forum specific as to the council membership?
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.
There’s a lore section for the Council. Most of the drama today was about people’s views on lore, specifically when it comes to the represenation of minorities in said lore.
I lost all respect for you.
You are unworthy of chili fries, and any jokes from me.
the respect was not much, but you lost what remained.
