Is it? I dunno, honestly. Obviously it's dehumanizing, but is it actually racist? I don't think this counts as a racial slur, it doesn't have the history, but I also don't know enough orc lore to argue. Seems more like a nerdy version of calling people barbarians...
Either way as a Russian I've waited long enough for us to get our own n-word analogue that only we get to say.
The tweet .
as far as I can tell it started with a tweet from azov nazis calling chechen soldiers "orcs" and talking about shooting them with bullets greased with pig fat
Yeah, from how I understand it the media has pushed calling all Russians orcs to distract from the fact that it was a racial slur used by Azov to describe Muslims.
Someone in the thread claiming it was a thing even before 2014, supposedly it was even in Zelensky tv show. Either way I wouldn't be surprised it's a pre-2022 thing.
probably, I would still bet on most of the people using it now didnt know about it before they saw azov nazis use it
This isn’t exclusive to this conflict only. You can go back to WW1-WW2 where western powers/Nazis referred to the Russians as “asiatic” hordes. They are to be portrayed as backwards, uncivilized destroyers of “civilization”(West). So yes, it’s racist.
squat, broad, flat-nosed, sallow-skinned, with wide mouths and slant eyes: in fact degraded and repulsive versions of the (to Europeans) least lovely Mongol-types
had to look it up so dropping the link:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orc#Debated_racism
I'm gonna defend Tolkien here and point out that he acknowledged a. This is an exaggeration of their traits and b. This perspective wasn't universal and was unique to Europeans. However, anyone else saying a race looks like orcs deserves to be called racist.
That's fair. The modern use.of orc for Russians is definitely racist, and Tolkien was racist(he was British in the 1940s, of course he was.). I just hate people going after him for this line in particular.
Is it racist to call Jewish people goblins? Yes, you're using language to take away their humanity, depict them as evil, and justify their death or potential extermination, as they are now just monsters to be destroyed.
No, because it has never been used in conjunction with a call to murder them, or repeated oppression of them socially or economically.
it has never been used in conjunction with a call to murder them
:I-was-saying:
Sorry to get real on the internet for a second, but do you genuinely want concentration camps set up for the English? A book burning of their literature? To check the papers of anyone who looks Anglo? Men, women, and children slaughtered by the millions? I really, really don't think you do. Even if you did, do you have the ability to enact that, or are you looking to? Is there a history of people who want that? That's why English ghoul isn't a slur.
Sorry if I went on the offensive there, I have gotten a bit tired of people saying "no I'm actually for genocide" on this site in the middle of a serious discussion.
In the same way "mayo" is racist I'd say, but it's acceptable bc of the centuries of geopolitical supremacy by English ghouls. In the context of calling Russians *rcs, it's way less acceptable imo (disclaimer: i am a politically illiterate westerner)
Edit: i also don't think the use of "mayo" against whites is racist for the same reasons it's ok to call the British ghouls, plus it's fucking hilarious
I guess it's fair to say there have been a couple centuries of Russian geopolitical supremacy in the region.
It is absolutely about targeting Russians ethnically.
You think they'll stop calling you orcs when the war is over? They will not stop.
The Russian Troll is a bard subclass with a specialty in sowing dissent :hillary-disgust:
He can pose as any well-meaning Bernie Bro, and has several tools to create chaos and division, like mentioning that healthcare is a human right or that cops shouldn't murder so much.
He gets -4 on all rolls if his opponent has a :vote: sigil anywhere on their person, and can be banished to the Depths of the Kremlin for 1d6 rounds if the words "Nice try Vlad" are uttered in their vincinity.
It doesn't have the history behind it because the history is still in the making, but it's absolutely got the intent.
To make it easier for them to shell civilians. it's a little like "is it racist to call Palestinians 'sand n******' for shooting rockets at you?"
Weren’t the first people to call the Russian troops “orcs” Azov battalion members fighting majority Muslim divisions
I think it was definitely used that way. Azov social media was praising their soldiers slathering bullets in pig fat
Wait, would calling like French "barbarians" be racist? Do I have to be Italian for it to be racist?
Who has commonly been called barbarians in the past? Generally the colonized
Anglo-Saxon people are barbarians. And yet, when I get angry I fight LESS effectively...
They're not calling them orcs for invading another country, lots of countries are invading other countries right now and aren't being called orcs.
