Wizards of the Coast has clarified their stance on race in Dungeons & Dragons, following tweets from D&D rules designer Jeremy Crawford. They have reaffirmed their stance on real life races in D&D and defined their direction handling fantasy races.
Wizards of the Coast has doubled down on the idea that all races appear in D&D. They say that humans in D&D include all races, not just the fantasy versions of Northern Europeans that populate most of the swords-and-sorcery genre.
Additionally, they confirmed Crawford’s tweets that races like orcs and drow will be portrayed more like they are in the Eberron and Exandria settings, as people with a full range of emotions and motives. These portrayals of race rely less on the biological determinism that is central to real-world racism. They also announced that at some point in the future they will release a produce that includes more customization of racial ability score increases.
Finally, Wizards of the Coast will be addressing racism in its published works. They will correct racially insensitive text in reprints of sourcebooks and adventures. They plan to rework the Vistani race as well, in order to make them less of a caricature of Romani people. As part of this effort, Wizards of the Coast has hired sensitivity readers on two of their recent books, and are proactively seeking new diverse talent to join their team. Hopefully this is a sign of a good direction for Dungeons & Dragons.
