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I go completely cosplay in those worlds, hell yeah, xenophobia is part of the lore and it's fun to flip your usual behavior to let off some steam in a safe and gratifying way. I'll play the "Xeno-Scum!" screaming commissar as well as the medieval knight who thinks black people are naturally inferior. But every fucking time, there's some asshole in the fandom whose damaged brain thinks this somehow translates into acceptable behavior IRL.
No dude! How do the huge black, red and straight out Antifa-Flag hanging in the playroom, the dozens of stickers everywhere showing a fist destroying a swastika and the fotos from demonstrations showing us with the local democratic-socialist youth not give it away? Our clubhouse is not a safe place for fascists to be in!
I’ll play the “Xeno-Scum!” screaming commissar as well as the medieval knight who thinks black people are naturally inferior.
I get and agree with your overall point, but as a matter of petty pedantry (sorry) I have to point out that racism in that sense was pretty absent in the Medieval period, at least amongst Europeans, who saw Subsaharan Africans as more fascinating than inferior. "Black = Inferior" started developing with the slave trade in the 16th century, and didn't really hit full speed until the start of the 18th century.
History is funny like that. Not ha-ha funny, unfortunately.
Oh I am cognizant of the fact that not necessarily skin-color is the fulcrum of real, existing medieval racism (it's rather a different kind of racism/culturalism and it does declare for example jews and muslims to be subhumans (source)) but I'm talking completely RPG-worlds here, with all their baggage and misunderstandings.
That source poses a, uh, very curious look at race in the Medieval period.
Then look at Sir Moriaen, a knight in Arthurian canon.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moriaen
That the social constructs around race change over time and that our modern understanding is different is not the same thing as our ancestors not being something we couldn't call racist.
Sir Moriaen's story is particularly interesting historically because it demonstrates both a clear racist fear response and a clear moral that it is wrong, and Sir Moriaen should instead be judged by his having better, noble blood and being a good Christian, not the color of his skin.
Okay, one might note a whole other topic of discussion there, but the point remains, tribalism and heirarchy are the root of all prejudice, and they weren't invented by Portuguese slave traders.
Okay, one might note a whole other topic of discussion there, but the point remains, tribalism and heirarchy are the root of all prejudice, and they weren’t invented by Portuguese slave traders.
That's kind of what I'm getting at, man. Tribalism and hierarchy are related to racism, but calling all prejudices racism makes the term so broad as to be borderline useless. Racism, as we would recognize it, dates to the early modern period.
I'm sorry but where does antifa come into play here. Like you can enjoy evil racist factions in fiction and still think that atifa has gone a little insane over the years. Hell you don't even have to enjoy villains while actively telling people you acknowledge the bad guy is bad.
What has antifa done that couldn't also be chalked up to "a pissed off man"?
Like I mean when you have antifa guys going around smashing cars and dressing up like thugs it's pretty hard to feel safe around antifa and take in their messages I just see violence and destruction and me wanting to get out asap sure their may be some chill antifa members but when the first thing I see when looking up your movement I see burning cars defaced buildings the message is kinda lost because with imagery like that I don't want to stick around to find the chill guys i want to get as far away from the psychos as fast as humanly possible
That kind of violence is really the exception to the rule. Mainly because the movement is anything but centralised, anyone and everyone can be part of it and declare themselves antifascist. And of course the corpo media is more interested in and reports on the things that make us look bad and get them clicks.
I did write an entire essay here, but then it occurred to me that this is rather not the place and it felt... self-congratulatory, so I'll just say:
Most of the work antifascist actions do is small and quiet but imho more important than the black block.