Why are people of color sidelined in the story of FF14?

[Rhysati]

I work at my local university's diversity and inclusion office, so I do actually care, thank you very much for your troll comment.

And yet they didn't teach you that Asian people are PoC's?

[Boblawblah]

I much prefer this type of trolling to the angry 'my real life mental issues are showing' trolling, so carry on Titanmen.

[Celine_Aurora]

I much prefer this type of trolling to the angry 'my real life mental issues are showing' trolling, so carry on Titanmen.

Wouldn't you much prefer we had neither?

[Derio]

Raughban is a POC and a main character. He is not a member of the scions but for years he has been in the forefront of the MSQ. It is even more apparent in Stormblood which introduced several POC that were sidelined or quest characters.

I think people really just want a fresh new diverse cast that isnt white washed.

[RyuDragnier]

Wouldn't you much prefer we had neither?

That would require working moderation, which we don't have.

[BRVV]

Can't wait to get back to this when we have 7.0 where we go to the new world and convince the Whalaqee to give us land for some chicken

[Leifei]

It’s so sad that the ones asking for representation are often racists in disguise.

It’s 2023 now and there are still people judging others by their color of skin, instead of their personality and intellectual wisdom.

This right here. Agreed.

[ronibosch]

I'll be honest: I hadn't noticed how "white" the FFXIV main cast is because my WoL is dark-skinned.

[Renathras]

...

Every time this comes up, it's a stupid question, and always will be:

1) The worlds are fictional, not real. "people of color"/"races" are represented differently. In this case, instead of skin color, it's the different races that we play. And yes, they all are the same species as far as we can tell, from Lalafell to Roegarden, they can mate, reproduce (the child takes on the racial characteristics of the mother generally, apparently), and all came from the original species (the Ancients) from the Sundering.

2) Even setting that aside, look how many of the Roes are BLUE SKINNED. How the heck is Merwyb not a "person of color"? Raubaun?

3) Fictions tend to not want to step on toes and be too on the nose, so they talk in different terms than race. Nationality or sub-species being the common ones. For example, people not liking Ala Mhigans (also dark skin tones, if you missed that), and the Garleans being racist to basically everyone.

4) The "white"/"light skinned" characters aren't styled after white Europeans/Americans anyway: THEY ARE JAPANESE. In case you were unaware, irl Japanese are considered "people of color". They are often light skinned (ironically, in much of the non-western world, light skin is prized rather than shunned, just as "ivory skin" was in the European middle ages as a standard of beauty because it tended to mean wealth and affluence and not working out in the sun. This same phenomena is the reason "redneck" is an insult, as it meant uneducated poor people who work in the sun for a living...), but are made in anime styles and often have sharper and more delicate features of Asian descended peoples, not European ones. Meaning even most of the "white" characters, if we're going to force the real world into our fictional ones, are Japanese, and are thus people of color. Hell, the only "European" peoples in the game are the Isgardians! Ala Mhigans and Ul'Dahns are Middle-Eastern, with some Ala Mhigans being arguably Africans, Radz-at-hanians are Indians, Domans are vaguely Chinese while Hingashi is Japanese outright, and...I'm honestly not sure what Limsa is. It might be Americans, but more likely Caribeans, who are Hispanics that would be Europeans mixed with Native Americans with a lot of black ancestry mixed in, too. The only outright "Europeans" in the game, if we're forcing real life into it, would be Ishgard, which is a combination of Medieval France and Medieval Italy/Rome (Catholic Church).

Everything and everyone else in the game would be "people of color" to the world of Etherys.

This is why trying to impose irl "races" and such on games and fictional worlds is stupid.

EDIT:

Proof that my university is part of the new normal of making sure that minority voices are finally represented. Money spent on diversity is money well spent unless you're a racist.

Ah, the old "if you don't like X that I like, you're a racist. CLASSIC.

Also, is it strange to anyone else the guy asking for "people of color/PoC" (how is "PoC" not an insult? It SOUNDS like an insult... Hell, "people of color" is "colored people" rearranged, which IS/WAS an insult!)...has his character as a white dude with blond hair? The same guy who supposedly works on a diversity board at his college? It's almost like if you live as a racist, EVERYTHING is racist to you. Case in point below with Y'Shtola...

Like...is it just me or...?

you forgot y'shtola getting whiter with every passing expansion

To be fair, that one actually makes sense:

She lived in a forest for 5 years out of the sunlight. Everyone's skin lightens when they get no sun for 5 years (4 years, same thing). And you can try to hand-wave that as just being her soul and not her body, but all the Scions looked like their First incarnations when they returned to the Source (likely to save on budget). And if they DID make her whiter to appeal to audiences: As I said above, it's to appeal to NON-WESTERN audiences that prefer lighter skin, among them, the Japanese. You know, the people making the game and who their primary target audience is?

It’s so sad that the ones asking for representation are often racists in disguise.

It’s 2023 now and there are still people judging others by their color of skin, instead of their personality and intellectual wisdom.

This.

So much and so hard THIS.

.

As I said, it's a stupid premise to begin with, but even if we take it for what it's worth and evaluate it honestly:

The only "Euopeans" in the game are the Isgardians.

And MAYBE(?) the Sharlyans. I'm not quite sure what they are, but probably Greeks...?

.

Diversity and inclusion is the exact opposite of training people to be victims. It's to empower minority voices by giving them a platform. Something that is done through the government, through corporations, and now through media. If you want to fight against the moral arc of the universe, you will find little company in polite society.

"It's to give people outsized influence in the population and treat them as first class citizens vs everyone else while insisting they're different and ensuring everyone else is constantly force-fed a diet of racism being alive and well."

Morgan Freeman said it best, when asked how to end racism: "STOP TALKING ABOUT IT!" (Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G2RwJlQdzpE "Morgan Freeman on racism and how to stop it..." ), to see and treat everyone as Humans. I said the same thing when I was in my teens, "If old people would shut up about racism, it would go away in a generation because people my age don't judge people on race."

DEI breeds, spreads, and perpetuates racism. It always will. While some people push it with the BEST OF INTENTIONS, clearly, race relations are getting worse, not better, with all these pushes. Giving some people a leg up BY DESIGN drives resentment in others, especially when said others are saddled with some "history" of racism while not being racist themselves and told their skin color is "bad" or "overrepresented". It also keeps the issue on the forefront, driving even people who have no native racist tendencies to start seeing everyone through the lens of race.

It's a pervasive and toxic disease that is spreading through academia and into society, making things FAR worse for everyone, and the people pushing it need to SIT DOWN and let everyone else be non-racist together.

[Renalt]

You guys are trying to hard to convince a known person who just causes trouble. Just sit back, relax, and enjoy.