K. Tempest Bradford, K. S. Villoso, and Sarah Guan join us for a panel discussing race and racism in fantasy worldbuilding. What sort of things does an author need to be mindful of when integrating real-world, real-world-inspired, or invented races into worldbuilding? How do tropes of fantasy species, like orcs and elves, or of magical races, like wizards and Valyrians, perpetuate harmful ideas? And how can we best examine our own biases and commit to digging out the bigotry that systematic racism has put in our heads?
For a deeper dive into this and related topics, please check out writingtheother.com and their many excellent resources, classes, and on-demand webinars.
Transcript for Episode 30 (Thank you, scribes!)
Worldbuilding for Masochists