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What the title says. Inspired from here
In my regular campaign:
four white guys
one hispanic guy
one filipino (me)
one white woman (married to one of the white guys)
one hispanic woman (gf to the hispanic guy).
Occasionally, the daughter of the married couple plays to cover her mom.
Our local RPGA is roughly split among white, asian, and a smattering of hispanic males. Only one female gamer.
Very un-diverse...though certainly not by design. I have maybe a drop or two of Native American blood. Don't think that qualifies though. :)
You know, I can't say I ever even remember seeing many (any?) non-whites in any of the gaming shops around here (Portland, OR), though I don't go all that often so maybe I just missed them.
M
My group currently consists of eight active members.
Demographics are: 5 men, 3 women. One of the men is black, and one of the men is full-blooded Greek. The rest of us are white.
Religious views range from fundamentalist Southern Baptist to solidly atheist.
Political views are equally far-ranging.
And yes, we are all friends.
My group currently consists of eight active members.
Demographics are: 5 men, 3 women. One of the men is black, and one of the men is full-blooded Greek....
Last time I checked Greek's were white. :)
My group:
4 white guys (Greek, Slovak, English, Norwegian ancestry)
1 Hispanic (Dominican)
1 Black (Haitian)
Religions - all Christian, but diverse (catholic, eastern orthodox, protestant, etc)
Political views...don't get me started. Far right to far left with a great deal of conspiracy theorists smack dab in the middle.
Last time I checked Greek's were white. :)
Well, it depends on which Greek you ask.
If he (or she) identifies strongly with his (or her) Greek-ness, (as this fellow does) he doesn't consider himself "white."
"White" applies more to us American mutts who don't really care about where our ancestors came from. ;)
In either case, there was no offense intended in the statement.
Last time I checked Greek's were white. :)Well, it depends on which Greek you ask.
If he (or she) identifies strongly with his (or her) Greek-ness, (as this fellow does) he doesn't consider himself "white."
"White" applies more to us American mutts who don't really care about where our ancestors came from. ;)
In either case, there was no offense intended in the statement.
No offense taken. Never thought of myself other than "white" even though I'm 100% Greek. My dad fell off the feta cheese/olive oil boat! :) Mom's parents came through Ellis island around 1912.
So if being "Greek" is not white then what do you classify yourself as? Greek is a nationality not a race.
My mom's side of the family is all german. My dad's side is that anglo-scotch-irish mishmash that you get all up and down the Appalachians.
I don't really consider myself anything. White appropriately describes my inability to tan, so that's fine.
As for "Greek not being white," that's my Greek friend's preference. If he felt like describing himself as white, that would be fine with me, too.
My first group was me (Sicilian, Czech-Irish, Seneca), a Jewish kid, his little sister, a standard issue white boy (English/Dutch, ethnically), a half Italian-half black kid and his little sister.
My group in Florida (10th grade to beginning of 11th): Me, two white guys, three black guys.
My high school group in Texas: all white boys. My school had ethnic nerds, but not many ethnic geeks.
My college group: Mix of white guys and gals, Asian guys and gals, a Chicano guy and a black chick.
Vagabonded around with various groups for a while after that, nothing long term, various ethnic, gender and sexual orientation make ups of the various groups.
Prison group: The core group was myself, two other white dudes, a black dude and a Mexican dude (from Mexico, not Chicano). No women, naturally. Various dudes of all kinds of backgrounds were in and out over the years, though.
Current group: white guys and gals, but one of the guys is gay. Group is open to all comers (if we need a new player, not currently the case) as long as they're cool, though.
From my experience, the hobby is dominated by white males, but there are plenty of people of all kinds of backgrounds rolling dice and having fun :)
Sorry, but I don't allow anyone who'd consider themselves "a minority" into my group. I look for good, honest people who want to have fun.
I also do not look to fill any kind of quota.
Isn't it about time we STOPPED looking at things this way, and start thinking about ourselves as PEOPLE?
Actually I ban gnomes and halflings. They can never quite seem to see over the tabletop. And all dwarves that play at the table must be clean shaven. Half-orcs are required to bathe and use deoderant. And , oh yeah, we don't allow anyone to play that has a name of Vecna,Iuz,Strahd or Harry.
We are looking for more elves though. We use their ears to hang our hats.
Racially, my group is very homogeneous. However, that's because 1) we live in Vermont, the whitest state in the union, and 2) I only really play with my family members.
In other ways, we're pretty diverse. We have men and women. We have teenagers, as well as people in their late fifties. We've got heterosexuals, bisexuals, and transgendered people. We have Christians, Taoists, Agnostics, Pagans, etc.
Current group: white guys and gals, but one of the guys is gay.And, don't forget, we had Christians, Wiccans, Buddhists, Atheists, and I don't know what-all else represented. And Puff handles the dice more often than Sean, so in addition to human Caucasians, there's one lizard player.
Ah, yes, Puff. His vocal contributions overshadow some of the human players' efforts as well. He truly is an anchor ;)
You know, I can't say I ever even remember seeing many (any?) non-whites in any of the gaming shops around here
M
It was an observation I made a few years ago upon taking up another hobby which was ethnically diverse.
In 30 years a roleplayer in the UK, I've only known a handful from non-white ethnicities (Thinks hard. Two, one Anglo-chinese, the other American-vietnamese).
It strikes me as a shame on several counts (not least because the hobby needs as many members as it can get )....You've got to wonder why. I've generally found roleplayers to be an inclusive bunch, regardless of age/religion/sexuality etc...
Meaning?
Treating people with respect and dignity is not necessarily the same as treating them equally. I had to shift my paradigm. We did not play with a battlemat. He had special dice, but they were cumbersome to use. He always brought his laptop so he could review his character sheet, so I suggested he use the random function in Excel for dice rolling. In most groups I have been in, all rolling is done out in the open. We made an exception for him.
This is all irrelevant to differences in race. My point is that sometimes you have to treat people differently. The important thing is treating people with respect and dignity.
Prison group: The core group was myself, two other white dudes, a black dude and a Mexican dude (from Mexico, not Chicano). No women, naturally. Various dudes of all kinds of backgrounds were in and out over the years, though.
Ok, no offense intended, but since you put it out there, I HAVE to ask. Prison group? Incarcerated or staff?
Ok, no offense intended, but since you put it out there, I HAVE to ask. Prison group? Incarcerated or staff?Prison group: The core group was myself, two other white dudes, a black dude and a Mexican dude (from Mexico, not Chicano). No women, naturally. Various dudes of all kinds of backgrounds were in and out over the years, though.
Incarcerated. (No offense taken, I've been open about my background on here, I figure it's best to be up front about it as I could conceivably wind up at someone on the boards gaming table - heck, I met most of my current group here).
Some of the players who sat at my table were my students when I was tutoring GED classes (my first prison job), and I convinced them to join the game to get some practical math and language experience. The GED guys in my game did a little better than normal on the test.
A few staff members (COs) were gamers, and would request my unit for weekend duty so they could watch the game. One even let me into the unit office so I could make copies of character sheets.
Of course, I was probably a member of the smallest minority in Fed prison: a white boy with two foot long dreadlocks. We were rarer than blond Chinese nymphomaniacs who are only attracted to Jewish cowboys...
We were rarer than blond Chinese nymphomaniacs who are only attracted to Jewish cowboys...
Steven Wright reference, FTW!
Diversity in my gaming group was a lot easier when I still lived in Hawaii. As it stands now, half my gaming group are women. One of them is of mixed ethnic background, including Native American and Hawaiian.
*shrugs* I'm a quarter Syrian...
a white boy with two foot long dreadlocks."... So out comes the mechanic to work on our little plane and it is a white guy with dreadlocks. So you know he makes bad decisions. ..." -Ron White
Dude, you have no idea how much easier I had it because of my dreads. I didn't join a gang when I was in, and non "cliqued up" white boys generally don't do well in prison, but the brothers thought I was cool, the Hispanics thought I was crazy (but cool) and the rednecks eventually figured out I was a solid dude, if crazy. Other white guys who didn't join gangs, of similar build and temperament to myself, didn't have such an easy time.
It didn't hurt that I proved to be a rarity in prison, and honest criminal who wasn't always trying to get over on everyone.
