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This is a start but it has to go further. It's not just that some D&D races are inherently evil (though it is that too, obvs), it's also that you can open the Monster Manual to a random page and get something like the Yuan-Ti, who are barely laundered Yellow Peril stereotypes. https://twitter.com/pcgamer/status/1275584431269478402
As reactionary D&D players complain about WotC promising these changes, it's worth considering why. Unexamined racism for sure. But it also suggests that they believe these elements are woven through the fabric of the game such that extracting them would spoil the cloth.
For many players, D&D is a game where a major component of adventures is to-the-death combat against a large number of sapient oppoinents. The inclusion of "evil" races is a lubricant for that sort of campaign, smoothing out any dissonance between playing heroes and being killers
Which is why addressing racism in D&D needs more than extracting evil races, decoupling in-game cultures form real ones, or even hiring sensitivty readers. It means rebuilding what that game is, what players are expected to do, and how GMs learn to frame and run their campaigns.
That is really hard work when you've got a brand that has, more or less, been the same thing for decades. I really hope WOTC taks the task seriously and doesn't just wallpaper over the problem But for now: I encourage y'all to find TTRPGs that have _already_ addressed this.
If you bought the BLM bundle from itch recently, I promise you wound up with a few great ones. And if you have any suggestions for others, definitely leave them in the replies here.
4:30 AM is a weird time for a take about a game I don't even run anymore, I know, but June 2020 be like that.
