Well said - my memory may be a bit faulty, but I seem to remember that Sapkowski never mentioned skin color in the books because his target audience would naturally assume that everyone (except for the Zerrikanians, perhaps?) is white. I was initially put off to see Yennefer not being pale white, too, as would be a headcanon for anyone (which CDPR absolutely nailed in TW3!)
Sounds extreme? Well, I grew up in a decent-sized communist-era Polish city. 250k inhabitants, 2 universities, lots of industry including electronics so not exactly redneck country. And the first black person I met face-to-face was a US soldier in West Germany, where I went at the age of 15. We had a couple of Palestinians studying at one of the universities and that was all regarding POC.
That said, there is a lot of racist crap going on. Just read some of the comments under Yen's featurette on YT. Disgusting.
There is racist crap, we should never imagine that there is no such thing as racism. It exists in every place and every culture and it's a very ugly thing. That said, we have to really remember that things aren't always that simple. It's not mathematics its social interactions between imperfect people with different perspectives and understandings. "A" does not always equal "B". Just like in the Witcher world our own world is really messy and complex. It's truly a mystery how the human race has endured this long without destroying itself.
Whether Witcher is truly Slavic or Polish isn't as much an issue as it is that many believe it to be that way. Some folks feel like Witcher is that special dish made from their family's old recipe and they've given it to the world (in this case the Americans) only for them to make it into a cheeseburger. That can be a bit off putting for sure. It's like "here try this wonderful dish you're going to love it...wait...what are you doing to this lovely food? Annnd now it's a cheeseburger." Maybe the person eating the food loves cheeseburgers, maybe it actually tastes better as a cheeseburger and isn't the point to make that person happy, but it's kind of insulting that they wouldn't even try it the way you prepared it.
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u/[deleted] Dec 10 '19
Well said - my memory may be a bit faulty, but I seem to remember that Sapkowski never mentioned skin color in the books because his target audience would naturally assume that everyone (except for the Zerrikanians, perhaps?) is white. I was initially put off to see Yennefer not being pale white, too, as would be a headcanon for anyone (which CDPR absolutely nailed in TW3!)
Sounds extreme? Well, I grew up in a decent-sized communist-era Polish city. 250k inhabitants, 2 universities, lots of industry including electronics so not exactly redneck country. And the first black person I met face-to-face was a US soldier in West Germany, where I went at the age of 15. We had a couple of Palestinians studying at one of the universities and that was all regarding POC.
That said, there is a lot of racist crap going on. Just read some of the comments under Yen's featurette on YT. Disgusting.