Hadozee (Patreon)

[Quick Edit/Note for Everyone]: The goal of this post is for me to communicate my thoughts and collect feedback. If you have frustrations please limit them to me and do not target/direct them to other patrons. I'm operating under the understanding that we're all doing the best we can with who we are and the time we have and the last thing I'd want is to add drama/stress to anyone's already busy/hectic life. Thanks.

Hey Everyone,

Since I know there has been a lot of conversation about racism regarding the Hadozee from the New Spelljammer book I wanted to check in with all of you and explain why I felt it was still appropriate to create Hadozee paper miniatures and to double check my decision with all of you - if after any discussion I come to the conclusion that I've made a mistake then I will remove the Hadozee miniatures from my catalog. You can read some reporting on the issue here, but I'll do my best to summarize it below.

Summary of the issue:
Wizards of the Coast brought the Hadozee (winged flying monkey humanoids) into 5th Edition with their latest Spelljammer series of books. This in and of itself wouldn't be problematic except they included slavery lore in conjunction with an official piece of art that heavily mirrored the racist minstrel trope. In isolation maybe these pieces of content would have been glossed over, but given the history of racism in America and in conjunction with each other these pieces of content are problematic. WotC's has since apologized, removed both the slavery section of lore and all of the Hadozee art from their digital content (D&D Beyond) - Apology here.

My understanding is there is nothing inherently problematic/racist about anthropomorphized flying monkeys and the problem is specifically due to the added slavery lore in conjunction with a specific piece of art that had racist undertones.

When designing my Hadozee paper miniatures I tried to just make them fun anthropomorphized winged monkey people. I don't believe my depictions of the Hadozee leverage any racist tropes. Perhaps I am mistaken though - while I do try to follow the discourse and be aware of my own biases and blind spots I absolutely can make mistakes out of ignorance and/or privilege.

In any case, I felt it was important to address this issue, get everyone's thoughts, and make sure I wasn't making a mistake.

Please note that inclusion is a key priority for me. I will always try to default to making people feel welcomed and accepted in the RPG space and if I become aware of something that I've created that goes against that priority then I absolutely will remove it form the library.

Thanks for your time,
-Marshall