Any minority (players) in our group?

[Der Rote Baron]

For all four, practically all their friends were white. Only one of them actually talked like a black man, i.e. if you were talking to the others on the phone and didn't know them, you'd think you were talking to white guys.
quote]

I'm just back from a short trip to London and I often could not hear a difference between a black person and a white person talking - if said person did not have a clearly Carribean/ African accent. But that does not count in so far as a white Italian and a white German speak with different accents, too.

In school we had one (yes, just one) black German and he did not speak any different from any of us "whiteys".

My question: How come that black Americans do indeed often have a different "speech pattern", "accent" etc although they do not come from a different country and lived in the States all their life?

And, nope, no minorities in my group ever. We have two women playing for like 7, 8 years now but women are not really a minority in this world, are they?

 

[Style]

My question: How come that black Americans do indeed often have a different "speech pattern", "accent" etc although they do not come from a different country and lived in the States all their life?

That's a good question. I have a few theories, but I hate to speculate. Any of my fellow Americans have a firm answer for this?

 

[Hervé]

Der Rote Baron wrote:

We have two women playing for like 7, 8 years now but women are not really a minority in this world, are they?

Well, in our all-male-macho-gaming-world, they still seem quite a minority, don't they?

 

[Old Bear]

Male?...yes. Macho?...rarely.

 

[Sham Rock]

Out of the 5 in the group I play with there is one Black guy (DM), and one Mexican, the rest of us are white.

 

[Der Rote Baron]

Out of the 5 in the group I play with there is one Black guy (DM), and one Mexican, the rest of us are white.

You certainly mean: "Our war-band leader is a hulking barbarian from the depth of the Black Kindoms, commanding our moetley crew of Hyborian soldiers. And one Zingarian pirate."

He is hulking, isn't he? Every gamemaster worth his screen should be.

 

[urikson]

Curious as to whether there any minority players in your group?

Generally we seem to be few are far between.

My group includes a Russian-born Jew (myself), an Israeli-born Romanian Jew and two Russian girls, one of which is quarter Ukranian.

Judge for yourself if we're a minority or not.

Oh, and we play in Israel.

BTW, why ask?

 

[Saxon]

I've had a Chinese, a Japanese, several Colombians, a Cuban, a Jamacian/Chinese, an Indian (dot not feather), the rest were Caucasian.

That is over the course of running 2 groups.

 

[sidkfjjteidlkkf]

The Only Minories in my group are those that do not follow my rules.

So far, I have none.

I am an equal opportunity GM.

 

[afro-slav]

Finally back after a long hiatus. Firstly, I wish to thank all those who have responded and those you brought it back on topic.

To answer a few questions that were asked:

Black speech in America has much to do with the slavery legacy. Slaves generally were not educated. The English learned was poor because they were not taught English when they arrived and where placed on the slave blocks. They just picked it up and this picked up language became the norm.
You just not could assimilate as slave. Then you are set "free" but you are still a second class citizen with few opportunities so you often are in the similar situation were assimilation is not as easy and the cycle repeats from generation to generation and not only linguistically.

For me I was lucky that I did not fall into the trap. I will say as a whole Black American society is really dysfunctional. This is my opinion as a Black American.


I think someone asked why I asked . There tends to be few ethnic minorities that I have run into over almost 30 years of gaming. I wanted to know who else was out there. BTW When I have gamed with "typical" Black people we all had a blast. But like someone mentioned above it is usually readers who game and if it was not for me they "probably" would not have been exposed to it.
For the most part the minorities that I have gamed with are just more assimilated.

Something just crossed my mind about what a poster said about sounding white. . I think that Standard American English(SAE) is a better way to say it. Language is not based on racial means but upbringing. I know some "black" sounding people of various racial backgrounds as I do "white" sounding ones of the same. Just as a Southern accent is not bound by race.

One a side note I have rather masculine features and I've been nicknamed Worf from Star Trek by many due to my voice and presence. Their were two white girls who were my antithesis. They were only "white" by color. They were really ghetto otherwise. Because I spoke SAE they thought I was gay.

Next, I did have some rough going reading some of REH's work. Especially, Vale of Lost Women. Imagine a you are reading story about a character you like written by someone of a different ethnic background and they make some remarks that you feel are really negative about your ethnic background.

Finally, I laugh whenever I read this

" The ancient empires fall, the dark-skinned peoples fade and even the demons of antiquity gasp their last, but over all stands the Aryan barbarian, white-skinned, cold-eyed, dominant, the supreme fighting man of the earth. Robert E. Howard, Wings In The Night

It shows the anti-intellectualism in racism. The term is Sankrist for noble. The idea of fair skinned Aryan is funny to me because "fair"skinned Aryans of the Vedic Tribes were "fair" skinned in relation to the "dark" skinned Dravidians. A light skinned Indo-Iranian is still pretty dark to a Teutonic/Nordic type. Iran means land of the Aryan and I don't think to many neo-Nazis what to claim they are Iranian.

Thanks for the responds again,

Afro-slav

 

[The King]

... I did have some rough going reading some of REH's work. Especially, Vale of Lost Women. Imagine a you are reading story about a character you like written by someone of a different ethnic background and they make some remarks that you feel are really negative about your ethnic background.
...Afro-slav

BTW what do you think of Charles R. Saunders' Imaro?

 

[afro-slav]

I have yet to read the Imaro tales.

Were you asking for my opinion as a black person or are there some reverse racist remarks in the book?

Actually, thanks for asking because I had forgotten about the character.

Afro-slav

 

[Avalonseer]

Hi, new to the forums here but thought I would reply to this one I am a female gamer and I have been playing role playing games for about 16 years now as well as DM'ing most of my groups games. As for the question earlier in the thread as to if other groups female gamers get "into" the setting I would have to say for myself at least that that is one of the thing that I like about Conan, the "adultness" of it

As for the rest of my group we have the typical white males as well as one more female and a Romanian male.

 

[The King]

I bought the books but didn't read them yet but from what I understood it is the pendant of Howard for African fantasy written by an Afro-American.

Thus it could be interesting to know if you can identify yourself with this setting as white guys might identify themselves with Howard's Hyborian Age (though identify isn't probably the right word), especially when Howard described his concept of the Black Kingdoms where Conan spent some times there.

There is some info on Dale Rippke's great web site (http://www.dodgenet.com/~moonblossom/imaro.htm) and that's where I heard from C. Saunders.

 

[afro-slav]

I'll check out the link. I tend to "identify" with European and Asian works. Native American, African, Meso-American, Middle-Eastern, Ancient Egyptian, etc...don't hold the same interest for me. I enjoy a good tale from any culture though.

Since gaming allows me to do things I can't I usually, I just played a black person, or mixed person with a background as to why my character was there if there were no a lot of minorities around.

I tend to identify more with the characters than the characters racial make up when I read or watch a film. However, I do feel pleased when I see "noble" Black character. First it is the characters "nobility" that attracts me. Secondly, if that character happens to be Black it is more a relief feeling.

Here is an example: From Star Trek I never really was a big fan of Sisko or Tuvak. They were Black but the characters did not appeal to me. They were not negative stereotypes either.

However, the actor who played the villain in Serenity and the hero in the excellent film Redbelt I truly enjoyed. He played characters I liked and they happened to be Black which was an extra bonus.

regards,

Afro-slav

 

[Clovenhoof]

My two cents:
1) main topic: I don't know any gamer from any minority group personally.

2) which doesn't necessarily say much, because in Germany we only have a fraction of the racial diversity you see in the US. Something like 8% of the country's residents are non-Germans. A third of them come from other EU states, a quarter are Turks, the rest is split between other origins.
(There are some issues with or prejudice against some types of foreigners, but these are based rather off nationality than race.)
All that is to say it's no wonder I don't know any non-German gamers in my area.