I just woke up from a long dream. In it I met Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in some sort of paranormal museum, after spreading salt to protect him from faerie elf-lings that wanted to get a hold of him for some reason, we had a conversation about how things were going in the outside world.
After that he discussed his interest in dungeons and dragons but felt reluctance in playing due to not knowing where to start wanting to play in a world as a champion of acceptance. I told him about Pathfinder and we had a conversation about the representation of people of color in Pathfinder especially that two of the Iconics were women of color and also represented as competent soldiers. Dr King was very delighted and excited to play.
I don't try to understand my dreams but I'm not surprised by this one. I'm a big fantasy fan and I'm also a black person that is often disappointed at the presentation of black people in fantasy. I recently got into Pathfinder and found out about the Iconic Paladin and Cleric and was just a little extra excited. I also hope this dream continues so that I can play Pathfinder with Martin Luther King Jr.
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I just woke up from a long dream. In it I met Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. in some sort of paranormal museum, after spreading salt to protect him from faerie elf-lings that wanted to get a hold of him for some reason, we had a conversation about how things were going in the outside world.
After that he discussed his interest in dungeons and dragons but felt reluctance in playing due to not knowing where to start wanting to play in a world as a champion of acceptance. I told him about Pathfinder and we had a conversation about the representation of people of color in Pathfinder especially that two of the Iconics were women of color and also represented as competent soldiers. Dr King was very delighted and excited to play.
I don't try to understand my dreams but I'm not surprised by this one. I'm a big fantasy fan and I'm also a black person that is often disappointed at the presentation of black people in fantasy. I recently got into Pathfinder and found out about the Iconic Paladin and Cleric and was just a little extra excited. I also hope this dream continues so that I can play Pathfinder with Martin Luther King Jr.
I might be opening a can of worms here but while your dream seems really cool, I fail to understand why it matters. Pathfinder does have a great depth of cultural inspiration, and its iconics are all of different ethnicity and backgrounds which is very sensible for a world that is as diverse as your own, and I think it's great that they reflect that diversity.
Yet at the same time, I can't help but to say this rubs me the wrong way and seems directly opposed to the idea of ending discrimination between peoples. You identify yourself as a "black person" whereas I identify you as a "person", as I identify myself as a "person". I don't believe that any good at all comes from grouping ourselves based on our physical differences. If anything that sort of thing only lays the foundation for people to conclude "this person is different from me, different is strange, strange is unknown, the unknown is bad, this person that is different from me is bad". It seems to me that people put too much emphasis on physical traits. To me, when I hear people saying "we black people" or "we white people" it sounds as silly to me as hearing someone declare "we green eyed people" or "we people with brown hair". I think it's one of the reasons I think racism in general is stupid. It is quite literally equivalent to a bunch of people standing around in a circle saying "okay, we have brown eyes, don't let anyone with blue eyes eat at our restaurant, but those with green eyes can but only if they come in after noon". Imagine the foolishness.
Perhaps Martin Luther King Jr. would be even more excited if we dropped racial prefixes before "person" altogether and embraced each other as family. We are all of the same species after all. There is no real difference between us, them, they, we, than physical characteristics like hair, eyes, or skin tones. All things which are purely cosmetic. We do not see Labrador dogs grouping into groups of only yellow or black for example. Why should we? We live in an age where we have the knowledge to know we are the same, and the power to let racisms die by embracing ourselves as humans instead of creating differences and groupings that do not matter.
The day I introduce myself as "an *insert color here* person" is the day I discard my humanity in favor of something else. Think on that for a while. Perhaps if we didn't self-segregate ourselves into large cliques we would see a greater emergence of people with different physical traits engaging in certain pastimes and fewer stereotypes. As more of us cast off these bonds of our own making by ceasing to differentiate ourselves from our fellow humans we find these stereotypical expectations naturally diminishing.
If you do see Mr. King in your dreams again, let him know that things have come a long way, and maybe - just maybe - one day in the future his deeds paved a way to a world where he will be forgotten. An honor to his deeds greater than any praise could grant, as a remnant of days that no one now could fathom. Where people scoff at the very idea that people would be split up and grouped. Where terms like "black person" or "white person" is an esoteric concept spoken of only by scholars of ancient history during their studies of "the times when humanity was stupid". :P