Thread by @ajitgeorgeSB

Some random thoughts on a recent controversy in the ttrpg space.

When a well-known white figure in streaming agrees to play a game or join a stream of a PoC creator, they aren't taking a spot away from a PoC who could have played in that seat.

The reason you ask that celeb to join is because you're trying to raise the profile for the PoC creator's game or stream. That's the priority. That's the goal. The white celeb isn't doing it for themselves--they are trying to be a good ally and elevate/raise attention for PoCs.

That is something--at least currently--is hard to do without white allyship. If the stream was super popular already, then yes, it'd be a different story. But for an indie creator who doesn't have an outsized audience, the goal is marketing and pr. And the white ally brings this.

That's why you ask a white ally who has a huge following to join your stream or play your game. We see a variation of this all the time in mainstream ads--celebrity endorsements.

Attacking a PoC creator or white ally who does this is really misplaced.

And you want that white ally to play a PoC, especially if the game is about PoCs in a particular setting/situation/element. Because it's the central element of why the game was made. And you want them to engage with it because that's really what the game is about.

As for a white player playing a PoC? I understand the fears around this. I was in a larp once where a white guy made a punchline out of the Indian character he was playing. I was furious.

But that's also not the entire experience of rping.

I believe in rping as a way to truly engage with things that are not us. To create empathy and to inhabit existences that are not our own. Some of my favorite games--like Monsterhearts--do this. It opened my eyes by giving me experiences in rp from a queer lens.

I really cannot express how much Monsterhearts changed me, and how much it made me--a straight man--reflect on queer experiences and queer lives. It was deeply impactful, and something that would not have happened without me rping as someone I am not.

One of the key stepping stones of getting white people to play pocs in rpgs well and thoughtfully is seeing white allies do it on stream and them taking it seriously, being engaged with the material, and understanding the cultural touchstones as they play.

This is super important because influential white allies playing pocs in streams helps other white people understand, engage, take it seriously, and model better rp of playing in these spaces.

I've written a lot of Indian material for rpgs and the thing that breaks my heart the most? When I hear white people are scared to play with it. I didn't create the material to be a museum piece--admired from afar, except by other pocs from time to time.

It's actually deeply Othering for me to feel like white people are scared to play as the Indian characters I've created--that my work is off-limits to them and cannot be played by them.

I don't want us to get to a place where we're in these tiny boxes, unable to engage beyond these extremely limited borders. That's not why I rp, or why I love rping so much.

For years, I've been a strong advocate for pocs. I have used tons of resources for poc causes. I've labored constantly for pocs in games. But I want our social justice to be more nuanced than a paint by numbers sketch. These topics are complex and deserve nuanced takes.

An addendum: I believe rp can and does create empathy. Empathy for the other, empathy for things unlike ourselves. And I will always encourage that if someone is doing it in good faith and a desire to expand their imagination and their horizons.

I want to add that there is a very important conversation to be had on how we can and must support and spotlight PoC streamers. But that's a very different conversation than this one, and shouldn't be conflated.

Some additional thoughts to this thread: blackface/yellowface/brownface is generally the use of makeup along with exaggerated/offensive acting in order to create a caricature of the ethnicity targeted. It's not meant in respect--quite the opposite. It's meant to disrespect.

But simply rping another ethnicity? Without the make-up, without the offensive accents, or stereotyping? That is the crux of rping--playing something we are not with care and love.

Additionally, no one can give or take away permission to rp.

No one speaks for all of one group.

It's offensive to think any poc community is a hivemind. Some people may try and say they speak for all of X. Be wary of such--that way leads cults of personality.

No one can give or not give permission to play a certain ethnicity.

It is on each of us to approach those games, play outside of our own group, and do our best. We will fail, and that's okay, as long as we own our mistakes and grow. More rpgs are coming out that are poc centered and with tools to play outside your ethnicity. Use those tools well.