The most racist thing I heard at Gen Con
The second most racist thing I heard at Gen Con was actually pretty tame. At a weapons* dealer, I asked to look at what appeared to be a Japanese tachi, my personal favorite sword. The vendor handed it over and said, “This is the style the Shaolin monks used.”
But wait! It gets much worse than merely conflating Japanese and Chinese martial and material cultures so you can make money!
I was running Thousand Arrows: Dragon King’s Gambit for four white players. Towards the end of the session, one player’s friend came to the table and sat with him.
PLAYER
We’re the Koreans, and we’re fighting the Japanese. Right now we’re trying to get some monsters to attack our enemies for us.
FRIEND
Ha! I guess telling them “attack the squinty-eyed ones” won’t work, huh?
Said friend probably had no idea what the X Card meant, but my response was an immediate reflex. I wasn’t happy with what I said next, though.
ME
Where did you even come from?
FRIEND
I’ve been here all along.
Normally, when I point out that a friend said something racist, I follow up with some humorous, unrelated comment so the friend can settle down and save face easily. That’s what I did here, but this random interloper was not my friend. I feel like I shouldn’t have afforded him that courtesy.
At least I erred on the side of mercy? I don’t know. It feels wrong somehow.
*for predictably low values of “weapon”
