Race in Dungeons and Dragons

I thought this would be a good time to address a concern I have about my primary hobby, Dungeons and Dragons.  Particularly, the comments in the game source material about race.

Race is used as one of several categorical descriptions for characters.  The traditional groups from which players can choose in 3^rd edition are human, Elf, Dwarf (fantasy dwarf, not littleperson, although this itself could be somewhat problematic to anyone with a modicum of sensitivity), Halfling/hobbit, Gnome, and Orc (though usually only as villains), with human- orc and human-elf hybrids also being playable in standard format.  I believe that 

games like D/D and their source material are using “race” where it is actually scientifically accurate to use “species”, and in so doing are buying into several damaging and racist perceptions in our society. 

When the game was developed, race was used synonymously with the word “species” in some circles.  In the fantasy case, this practice was more likely grandfathered in from the J.R.R. Tolkien source material with no regard to whether or not it was appropriate, and has since been adopted unquestioningly by many other works in the fantasy genre which have missed the “ok for its time” excuse by several decades.

See, each of these character types have inherent advantages and disadvantages, measured in the six core abilities of Strength, Constitution, Dexterity, Intelligence, Wisdom, and Charisma.  Many of these are physiological in nature- for example, differences in body type account for dwarves and gnomes being hardier, elves and halflings being nimbler, and orcs being more physically powerful.  The three physical abilities seem naturally differentiated enough.  The problem arises with the mental abilities- namely, that Dwarves, Orcs and Half-Orcs suffer particular reductions in certain mental abilities, some of which are implied to be inherently determined by race, and that this reinforces every racist lie from involuntary sterilization backers to “the Bell Curve” and its popular attacks on the abilities of Students of Color.

Briefly stated, Dwarves take a penalty to people skills, but this is implied to be culturally determined- their society is frequently shown to be suspicious of outsiders and to value directness (and wealth) over niceties in interpersonal dealings.  That’s fine- cultural norms differ, and someone from this background would surely have some difficulties dealing with someone who wasn’t.  As Dwarves are a minority, this rule makes some sense.  Orcs have the same penalty for similar reasons- they are suggested to live in frequently reworked tribes and kept out of desirable land, meaning that they are often forced to banditry or hardship, and therefore have a hard time dealing with others, especially as they are regarded as monstrous.  The problem comes when we look at the reductions they automatically suffer to intelligence and wisdom.  Biologically, there is precedent for this difference between species, not races, if you peg it to brain development.  All human brains develop at pretty much the same rate and extent, given adequate nutrition, stimulation, safety, and other factors of opportunity.  Now, a chimp’s brain does not grow and develop as much as a human’s- they’re born with something like 60% of their relative brain matter to body size compared to our less than half.   

There are of course other distinctions, for instance most of these species are genetically compatible with humans – (elf and orc normally, dwarf with severe consequences such as insanity, and Halfling in certain houserules).  One of the common descriptors of a species is that its members cannot reproduce viable offspring except with each other, so by this reasoning one may say “race” is the correct term.  But this may not be adequate- ducks, for example, seem to breed across species lines to some extent, and this distinction would only apply to humans- orcs cannot mate with elves for example, nor dwarves with hobbits. 

Considering that this is an invented genealogy whose member “races” have inherent differences which in real life would only be the result of environmental difference in upbringing, I’m troubled.  Species seems a more appropriate taxon given the drastic differences in mental ability between orcs and the rest of the population, to say nothing of “race” frequently being used as the article of distinction for every remotely humanoid creature from lizardfolk to giants.

This is problematic because claiming there are differences in human population that are inherent in the phenotypic presentations we refer to as “race” has been used to justify many oppressive practices, and is just plain bad science.  My brain is not better or worse than anyone else’s because of my race, it is better than that of a duck because I am human.  I am fine referring to the “human race” for rhetorical purposes, but to use that as a distinguishing trait from other sapients seems to buy into many lies used to back everything from Slavery to the Nuremberg laws.  Especially since Dungeons and Dragons is such a white hobby, we need to be especially careful not to linguistically reinforce the racist misconceptions that still persist in many circles just because it sounds cool and old-timey.  Accordingly, I ask my players to refer to character “species” rather than “race” unless they’re referring to something very, very specific.

If I get 20 reads this week I’ll post some descriptions of political messages I’ve worked into D/D over the years.  Stay tuned if you want this, ignore us this week if you don’t- not really.  Please read us.  And comment.  We are lonely.  Pageviews for the Internet God!  Comments for the Sitethrone.  

Solidarität, Genossinnen und Genossen.  Now roll for initiative.