dragondreamer wrote...
An elf is an elf. A human is a human.
That's just it - the IRL racists start from
exactly this POV. They presuppose their [insert whatever] is a real and meaningful distinguishing ground between peple.
The difference here is that "white" people intermarrying with "non-white" people won't actually make humans go extinct.
Except that for the IRL racist, that's irrelevant. "White" people will dissapear. Their skin will be different. Their (to the racist) abilities and inclinations will be different. All of that changes.
Humanity just changes over time, if at all...while elves are looking at actual extinction like the dinosaurs. We're talking about a completely different species with a very strange reproductive issue. As individuals, yes, any elf could decide to live or marry who they wish. That doesn't mean there aren't real concerns about their future.
Except that for the racist, again, "white" is a race. Your whole point boils down to this: elves are different from humans and white people are not different from other humans. But the IRL racist believes the exact same thing. And depending on how you interpret, say, genetic research, there's a non-insane argument for the classification. On a fine analysis it breaks down to still being culture, but it requires a lot of fine-tuning to reach that conclusion.
They have controversial beliefs that may or may not be true, yes. But I'm more concerned with what they do rather than what they think. Again, I'm not interested in condemning them for being rude and snobby. As far as Thedosian races who consider themselves superior go, they're pretty tame.
Thinking that people's autonomy is irrelevant because the group needs them to breed is a bit more than just "controversial". But there are important caveats, and this isn't the point that I take that much issue with, given that lots of elves
do believe there's something intrisically unique and worth preserving about looking and being what they currently are.
You're a big City elf fan even if they share some of the same controversial traits as the Dalish? They both refer to humans as "shemlen", which is actually less offensive when Dalish use it because it's simply the old elvish word for humans, and the Dalish try to retain what they have of their old language.
It's
way more offensive for the Dalish, because of the way they use it as a racial slur. The CEs use it as a racial slur against their oppressors. The Dalish use it as a racial slur as they interpret their that ancestors did: to signify and point out an inferior and vermin-like group of individuals. It's not that the CEs somehow use it in a "good" way, but the Dalish use it in a far worse way because, according to their own history, the slur carried about the worst-possible racist meaning back in the good ol' days of Arlathan. From the Codex:
"Called shemlen, or "quicklings," by the ancients, the humans were pitiful creatures whose lives blinked by in an instant
... But the humans brought worse things than war with them. Our ancestors proved susceptible to human diseases, and for the first time in history, elves died of natural causes. What's more, those elves who spent time bartering and negotiating with humans found themselves aging, tainted by the humans' brash and impatient lives."
They both prefer to keep to themselves, the alienage wall is often considered to keep humans out as much as to keep elves inside
Yeah, but there's nothing wrong with wanting isolation. The Dalish isolation isn't just about self-protection, though. It's tinged with their mystical and religious view that humans are plague-bearing vermin
And both consider it a bad thing to marry outside their species for reproductive reasons.
It's understandable that the group of people that believes that elves should marry elves and breed children to preserve "elvenhood" would disapprove of people who don't do that. That's pretty bad for autonomy. But it could be alot worse, and neither the Dalish nor the CEs push it that far. Posters here do, but like I said I don't take much issue with the general attitude either group has. It's when it's forced on others that it becomes a problem, but we never really saw that in either game (even the CE origin had the rushed marriage for Tabris to try and get Duncan not to recruit).
The Dalish have retained more of their old culture, and City elves are more assimilated into Andrastian human culture, but there's a lot of commonalities that simply come from the fact that they're all elves and face similar issues.
The Dalish invented a new culture for themselves out of the scraps they found after centuries of slavery under Tevinter. They like to pretended it's a recovery, but that's just not true. It's what they've invented for themselves.
In their history, when they did have power, they weren't known for oppressing anyone then either.
We don't know anything about their history. We do know that right now, they see CEs as something inferior because of who they were - servants and commoners instead of nobles - which suggests a very classist and stratified society. We also know that this social classis carries forward even today, in terms of how difficult it is for someone of an outside lineage to, say, become Keeper.
Modifié par In Exile, 19 janvier 2014 - 03:30 .
Retour en haut
