Mon monde imaginaire

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tw: nazisme, racisme, antisémitisme, islamophobie Coucou ! Aujourd’hui, parlons d’un sujet qui peut paraître épineux : incarner un personnage J/juif (eh oui, ça commence déjà avec les majuscules et les minuscules mais vous inquiétez pas, c’est assez simple) sur les forums rpg francophones. Voici quelques petites clés de compréhension pour vous aider à y voir plus clair, straight from a Jewish person. Disclaimer : être J/juif, c’est un sujet complexe, aujourd’hui plus que jamais. Je le dis ici, et je le redirai certainement : le bingo du parfait personnage J/juif, ça n’existe pas, tout simplement parce que dans la vraie vie, ça n’existe pas non plus. 

J/juif, kézako?

Merci de poser la question, Jean-Michel, je te sens confus et je te pardonne, parce que ça l’est ! Pour comprendre l’identité juive, il faut d’abord faire la distinction entre Juif (avec une majuscule) et juif (avec une minuscule).  Juif - s’applique d’une part à l’appartenance ethnique et culturelle. Ex: La famille Cohen sont des Juifs ashkénazes. Ils viennent de Pologne et me forcent à manger des pierogi toute la journée ! juif - s’applique à la pratique religieuse du judaïsme. Ex: Simon est juif pratiquant. Il a célébré sa bar-mitzvah et reste traumatisé par sa tante qui a roulé une pelle au DJ.  (Note : à bas les pierogi et vive les tantes pompettes aux bar-mitzvah) Cette distinction est très importante, car elle représente la réalité de millions de personnes aujourd’hui. On peut être Juif sans être juif, c’est-à-dire être ethniquement et culturellement Juif sans mettre le pied dans une synagogue et sans faire sa bar-mitzvah. Certaines personnes qui se convertissent au judaïsme (un sujet sensible et complexe), souvent pour pouvoir se marier et garantir à leurs enfants une reconnaissance, sont donc juives sans être Juives. Mais dis-moi Jamy… Juif ? Ethniquement ? Culturellement ? J’ai peur de faire une boulette (de pierogi). L’identité juive est très complexe et est indissociable des persécutions subies au cours des siècles et des mouvements de migration. J’adorerai pouvoir décortiquer tout ça, mais on n’aurait pas assez d’une vie, alors voici quelques points qui éclairciront les zones d’ombre. Être Juif ethniquement, c’est descendre de Juifs. Dans la tradition, la judéïté (le fait d’être Juif) se transmet par la mère. Si ta mère est Juive, tu es Juif ; les origines de ton père n’ont pas d’importance. Bien sûr, aujourd’hui, il y a de nombreuses discussions philosophiques à ce sujet. Certaines communautés conservatrices ne reconnaissent encore aujourd’hui que l’ascendance matrilinéale et les enfants de femmes converties ne seront pas reconnus comme Juifs, même si élevés dans la culture et religion juives. À l’origine, les Juifs vivaient dans une zone, la Terre d’Isräel, qui correspond aujourd’hui plus ou moins à la Palestine (attention: Terre d’Israël =/= état d’Isra*l). Cette zone a eu de nombreux noms au cours des siècles et est considérée comme sacrée par les trois grandes religions monothéistes : judaïsme, Islam et christianisme. Après les destructions successives du Temple de Jérusalem et de nombreuses guerres, menés notamment par l’empereur romain Titus (eh oui, ça remonte !), les Juifs se sont dispersés aux quatre coins du monde, ce qui a également contribué au mythe des Juifs errants, condamnés à vivre loin de la Terre Promise. Cette dispersion a contribué à la création de nombreuses cultures juives.

Il y a énormément de cultures juives différentes. Les deux groupes les plus connus sont : - les Juifs ashkénazes (coucou, c’est moi !) : les Juifs ashkénazes sont les Juifs d’Europe centrale et de l’Est. Par exemple, la majeure partie de ma famille vient d’Ukraine mais j’ai également des ancêtres polonais. Beaucoup de Juifs ashkénazes ont fui les pogroms et ont émigré soit vers les États-Unis (où leur “ashkénazité” a mué, car oui, l’identité ne reste pas gravée dans la pierre !) soit vers l’Europe occidentale. Gardons en tête que selon les pays où ils se trouvaient, les Juifs ashkénazes ont adopté certains comportements, certaines cultures, etc. Ce n’est pas un “one size fits all”, même s’il existe des éléments communs comme le yiddish par exemple. Enfin, l’histoire des Juifs ashkénazes est malheureusement indissociable de la WW2. Chaque Juif ashkénaze ou presque a une histoire à raconter. Ce n’est pas de l’histoire ancienne et ça a un impact très réel sur des millions de vies. 

- les Juifs séfarades (coucou c’est encore moi !) : ce sont des Juifs originaires d’Espagne qui ont ensuite été chassés par les Rois Catholiques Isabelle et Ferdinand, au XVème siècle. À la suite de cet exil, les Juifs séfarades se sont établis en Afrique du Nord, dans l’Empire Ottoman (fun fact, une légende raconte que le sultan Bayezide II se serait ouvertement moqué de Ferdinand et Isabelle d’avoir ainsi chassé les Juifs, car ils constituaient selon lui “un trésor”). Par exemple, j’ai également des ancêtres grecs, plus précisément de la ville de Thessalonique. Mon oncle a épousé une Juive marocaine : mes cousins sont donc sont mi-ashkénazes, mi-séfarades, mais la famille de ma tante est entièrement séfarade (on s’y perd, je vous jure…) ! Les Juifs séfarades présentent donc, au même titre que les Ashkénazes, une grande variété de cultures au sein de leur groupe. Certains parlent arabe (comme l’une de mes tantes), d’autres ladino (un mélange d’hébreu, d’arabe et d’espagnol), d’autres grec, etc. Évidemment, les Juifs séfarades ont également été touchés par la WW2.

Il existe des diasporas juives partout dans le monde: en Iran, en Inde, en Chine… Chaque diaspora a sa propre culture, sa propre liturgie, ses liens avec les non-Juifs, etc.  Ce que j’explique ici, ce n’est qu’une base simplifiée ! N’hésitez pas à vous perdre dans les recherches : Wikipédia est un bon début, mais il y a aussi ResearchGate, JSTOR, Persée.fr, etc… 

L’antisémitisme (tw: insultes)

“Alors, ton nez est crochu pour mieux sentir l’argent ?” mdr merci Eudes-Jacques, quelle blague fabuleuse. Non, mon nez est cassé parce que je passe mon temps à mettre des coups de tête aux débiles dans ton genre. L’antisémitisme, c’est le racisme spécial anti-J/juif. Ses racines sont toutes aussi pourries et haineuses les unes que les autres et je ne ferai pas le plaisir à ses utilisateurs de les détailler. Les obsessions antisémites sont multiples : on serait tous riches à millions (ah), oeuvrant dans les banques et dans le show-business pour étendre notre domination sur le monde (c’est cela, oui), incapables de loyauté et de patriotisme (affaire Dreyfus, le fameux “séparatisme” qui obsède tant nos gouvernants ne date donc pas d’hier… ), avec des nez crochus et des mains difformes pour mieux voler l’argent des bons chrétiens. Nous serions également tous islamophobes et anti-arabes, et l’extrême-droite, tous comme certains gouvernements (Isra*l, Ar*bie Sao*dite, Ir*n, pour ne pas les nommer) à qui cela profite sont trop heureux d’exploiter cette rhétorique puante. Il est tout aussi raciste et islamophobe de supposer que les musulmans (Arabes ou pas) détestent les J/juifs. 

Boozhoo (hello) Fallout fandom! I'm a card-carrying Anishinaabe delivering this rough guide about writing Indigenous characters because wow, do I see a lot of shit.

Let's get something out of the way first: Fallout's portrayal of Indigenous people is racist. From a vague definition of "tribal" to the claims of them being "savage" and "uncivilized" mirror real-world stereotypes used to dehumanize us. Fallout New Vegas' narrated intro has Ron Perlman saying Mr. House "rehabilitated" tribals to create New Vegas' Three Families. You know. Rehabilitate. As if we are animals. Top it off with an erasure of Indigenous people in the American Southwest and no real tribe names, and you've got some pretty shitty representation. The absence of Native American as a race option in the GECK isn't too great, given that two Native characters are marked "Caucasian" despite being brown. Butch Deloria is a pretty well-known example of this effect. (Addendum: Indigenous people can have any mix of dominant and recessive traits, as well as present different phenotypes. What bothers me is it doesn't accommodate us or mixed people, which is another post entirely.)

As a precautionary warning: this post and the sources linked will discuss racism and genocide. There will also be discussion of multiple kinds of abuse.

Now, your best approach will be to pick a nation or tribe and research them. However, what follows will be general references.

Terms that may come up in your research include Aboriginal/Native Canadian, American Indian/Native American, Inuit, Métis, and Mestizo. The latter two refer to cultural groups created after the discovery of the so-called New World.

As a note, not every mixed person is Métis or Mestizo. If you are, say, Serbian and Anishinaabe, you would be mixed, but not Métis. Even the most liberal definition caps off at French and British ancestry alongside Indigenous (some say Scottish and English). Mestizo works the same, since it refers to descendants of Spanish conquistadors/settlers and Indigenous people.

Trouble figuring out whose land is where? No problem, check out this map.

Drawing

Don't draw us with red skin. It's offensive and stereotypical.

Tutorial for Native Skintones

Tutorial for Mixed Native Skintones

Why Many Natives Have Long Hair (this would technically fit better under another category, but give your Native men long hair!)

If You're Including Traditional Wear, Research! It's Out There

Languages

Remember, there are a variety of languages spoken by Indigenous people today. No two tribes will speak the same language, though there are some that are close and may have loan words from each other (Cree and Anishinaabemowin come to mind). Make sure your Diné (you may know them as Navajo) character doesn't start dropping Cree words.

Here's a Site With a Map and Voice Clips

Here's an Extensive List of Amerindian Languages

Keep in mind there are some sounds that have no direct English equivalents. But while we're at it, remember a lot of us speak English, French, Spanish, or Portuguese. The languages of the countries that colonized us.

Words in Amerindian languages tend to be longer than English ones and are in the format of prefix + verb + suffix to get concepts across. Gaawiin miskwaasinoon is a complete sentence in Anishinaabemowin, for example (it is not red).

Names

Surprisingly, we don't have names like Passing Dawn or Two-Bears-High-Fiving in real life. A lot of us have, for lack of better phrasing, white people names. We may have family traditions of passing a name down from generation to generation (I am the fourth person in my maternal line to have my middle name), but not everyone is going to do that. If you do opt for a name from a specific tribe, make sure you haven't chosen a last name from another tribe.

Baby name sites aren't reliable, because most of the names on there will be made up by people who aren't Indigenous. That site does list some notable exceptions and debunks misconceptions.

Here's a list of last names from the American census.

Cowboys

And something the Fallout New Vegas fans might be interested in, cowboys! Here's a link to a post with several books about Black and Indigenous cowboys in the Wild West.

Representation: Stereotypes and Critical Thought

Now, you'll need to think critically about why you want to write your Indigenous character a certain way. Here is a comprehensive post about stereotypes versus nuance.

Familiarize yourself with tropes. The Magical Indian is a pretty prominent one, with lots of shaman-type characters in movies and television shows. This post touches on its sister tropes (The Magical Asian and The Magical Negro), but is primarily about the latter.

Say you want to write an Indigenous woman. Awesome! Characters I love to see. Just make sure you're aware of the stereotypes surrounding her and other Women of Color.

Word to the wise: do not make your Indigenous character an alcoholic. "What, so they can't even drink?" You might be asking. That is not what I'm saying. There is a pervasive stereotype about Drunk Indians, painting a reaction to trauma as an inherent genetic failing, as stated in this piece about Indigenous social worker Jessica Elm's research. The same goes for drugs. Ellen Deloria is an example of this stereotype.

Familiarize yourself with and avoid the Noble Savage trope. This was used to dehumanize us and paint us as "childlike" for the sake of a plot device. It unfortunately persists today.

Casinos are one of the few ways for tribes to make money so they can build homes and maintain roads. However, some are planning on diversifying into other business ventures.

There's a stereotype where we all live off government handouts. Buddy, some of these long-term boil water advisories have been in place for over twenty years. The funding allocated to us as a percentage is 0.39%: less than half a percent to fight the coronavirus. They don't give us money.

"But what about people claiming to be descended from a Cherokee princess?" Cherokee don't and never had anything resembling princesses. White southerners made that up prior to the Civil War. As the article mentions, they fancied themselves "defending their lands as the Indians did".

Also, don't make your Indigenous character a cannibal. Cannibalism is a serious taboo in a lot of our cultures.

Our lands are not cursed. We don't have a litany of curses to cast on white people in found footage films. Seriously. We have better things to be doing. Why on earth would our ancestors be haunting you when they could be with their families? Very egotistical assumption.

Indigenous Ties and Blood Quantum

Blood quantum is a colonial system that was initially designed to "breed out the Indian" in people. To dilute our bloodlines until we assimilated properly into white society. NPR has an article on it here.

However, this isn't how a vast majority of us define our identities. What makes us Indigenous is our connections (or reconnection) to our families, tribes, bands, clans, and communities.

Blood quantum has also historically been used to exclude Black Natives from tribal enrollment, given that it was first based on appearance. So, if you looked Black and not the image of "Indian" the white census taker had in his brain, you were excluded and so were your descendants.

Here are two tumblrs that talk about Black Indigenous issues and their perspectives. They also talk about Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people of Australia.

However, if you aren't Indigenous, don't bring up blood quantum. Don't. This is an issue you should not be speaking about.

Religion

Our religions are closed. We are not going to tell you how we worship. Mostly because every little bit we choose to share gets appropriated. Smudging is the most recent example. If you aren't Indigenous, that's smoke cleansing. Smudging is done in a specific way.

Now, a lot of us were forcibly converted. Every residential school was run by Christians. So plenty of us are Catholic, Baptist, Anglican, Lutheran, etc. Catholicism in Latin America also has influence from the Indigenous religions in that region.

Having your Indigenous character pray or carry rosaries wouldn't be a bad thing, if that religion was important to them. Even if they are atheist, if they lived outside of a reserve or other Indigenous communities, they might have Christian influences due to its domination of the Western world.

Settler Colonialism and the White Savior Trope

Now we've come to our most painful section yet. Fallout unintentionally has an excellent agent of settler-colonialism, in particular the Western Christian European variety, in Caesar's Legion and Joshua Graham.

(Addendum: Honest Hearts is extremely offensive in its portrayal of Indigenous people, and egregiously shows a white man needing to "civilize" tribals and having to teach them basic skills. These skills include cooking, finding safe water, and defending themselves from other tribes.)

Before we dive in, here is a post explaining the concept of cultural Christianity, if you are unfamiliar with it.

We also need to familiarize ourselves with The White Man's Burden. While the poem was written regarding the American-Philippine war, it still captures the attitudes toward Indigenous folks all over the world at the time.

As this article in Teen Vogue points out, white people like to believe they need to save People of Color. You don't need to. People of Color can save themselves.

Now, cultural Christianity isn't alone on this side of the pond. Writer Teju Cole authored a piece on the White Savior Industrial Complex to describe mission trips undertaken by white missionaries to Africa to feed their egos.

Colonialism has always been about the acquisition of wealth. To share a quote from this paper about the ongoing genocide of Indigenous peoples: "Negatively, [settler colonialism] strives for the dissolution of native societies. Positively, it erects a new colonial society on the expropriated land base—as I put it, settler colonizers come to stay: invasion is a structure not an event. In its positive aspect, elimination is an organizing principal of settler-colonial society rather than a one-off (and superseded) occurrence. The positive outcomes of the logic of elimination can include officially encouraged miscegenation, the breaking-down of native title into alienable individual freeholds, native citizenship, child abduction, religious conversion, resocialization in total institutions such as missions or boarding schools, and a whole range of cognate biocultural assimilations. All these strategies, including frontier homicide, are characteristic of settler colonialism. Some of them are more controversial in genocide studies than others." (Positive, here, is referring to "benefits" for the colonizers. Indigenous people don't consider colonization beneficial.)

An example of a non-benefit, the Church Rock disaster had Diné children playing in radioactive water so the company involved could avoid bad publicity.

Moving on, don't sterilize your Indigenous people. Sterilization, particularly when it is done without consent, has long been used as a tool by the white system to prevent "undesirables" (read, People of Color and disabled people) from having children. Somehow, as of 2018, it wasn't officially considered a crime.

The goal of colonization was to eliminate us entirely. Millions died because of exposure to European diseases. Settlers used to and still do separate our children from us for reasons so small as having a dirty dish in the sink. You read that right, a single dirty dish in your kitchen sink was enough to get your children taken and adopted out to white families. This information was told to me by an Indigenous social work student whose name I will keep anonymous.

It wasn't until recently they made amendments to the Indian Act that wouldn't automatically render Indigenous women non-status if they married someone not Indigenous. It also took much too long for Indigenous families to take priority in child placement over white ones. Canada used to adopt Indigenous out to white American families. The source for that statement is further down, but adoption has been used as a tool to destroy cultures.

I am also begging you to cast aside whatever colonialist systems have told you about us. We are alive. People with a past, not people of the past, which was wonderfully said here by Frank Waln.

Topics to Avoid if You Aren't Indigenous

Child Separation. Just don't. We deserve to remain with our families and our communities. Let us stay together and be happy that way.

Assimilation schools. Do not bring up a tool for cultural genocide that has left lasting trauma in our communities.

Wendigos. I don't care that they're in Fallout 76. They shouldn't be. Besides, you never get them right anyway.

Skinwalkers. Absolutely do not. Diné stories are not your playthings either.

I've already talked about drugs and alcohol. Do your research with compassion and empathy in mind. Indigenous people have a lot of pain and generational trauma. You will need to be extremely careful having your Indigenous characters use drugs and alcohol. If your character can be reduced to their (possible) substance abuse issues, you need to step back and rework it. As mentioned in Jessica Elm's research, remember that it isn't inherent to us.

For our final note: remember that we're complex, autonomous human beings. Don't use our deaths to further the stories of your white characters. Don't reduce us to some childlike thing that needs to be raised and civilized by white characters. We interact with society a little differently than you do, but we interact nonetheless.

Meegwetch (thank you) for reading! Remember to do your research and portray us well, but also back off when you are told by an Indigenous person.

i’ve looked through all of these lists and articles personally and find them all to be a great help when creating and furthering the depth of your character from the beginning of their life to the end!! hope it helps!!

Question Lists

Character Development: Questions for Creating Character Facts and Personalities: includes a few short question lists

The Ultimate Character Questionnaire (over 150 character questions): lists with some standard and some unusual questions

365 Character Questions: a pdf link sorted into a “question a day” style

Character Development Questions: another list with some questions others might have forgotten! (includes free sheets you can take on the go)

Building Character, a Checklist: short, sweet, and to the point–good for roleplayers!

How to Create a Character Profile: another list, but the last part “how the character is involved in the story” is good for writers and roleplayers alike for creating connections between characters

Articles

Character development questions: Building character arcs: thought-provoking article about building not just the character but the whole arc they will tell

Character Development Exercises: an article including exercises about strengthening your character–more for when you have the character started out but need help giving them complexity

The Zero-Fuckery Quick-Create Guide To Kick-Ass Characters (And All The Crazy Plot Stuff That Surrounds ‘Em): a great article that, after reading once, can be applied to tons of character creation types

Other

20 Questions for Deep Character Creation: this includes some question lists but also prompts deep thought about those questions

i have just stumbled upon the most beautiful public document i have ever laid eyes on. this also goes for anyone whose pastimes include any sort of character creation. may i present, the HOLY GRAIL:

https://www.fbiic.gov/public/2008/nov/Naming_practice_guide_UK_2006.pdf

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Head Injuries

General Information | More

Hematoma

Hemorrhage

Concussion

Edema

Skull Fracture

Diffuse Axonal Injury

Neck

General Information

Neck sprain

Herniated Disk

Pinched Nerve

Cervical Fracture

Broken Neck

Chest (Thoracic)

General Information

Aortic disruption

Blunt cardiac injury

Cardiac tamponade

Flail chest

Hemothorax

Pneumothorax (traumatic pneumothorax, open pneumothorax, and tension pneumothorax)

Pulmonary contusion

Broken Ribs

Broken Collarbone

Abdominal

General Information

Blunt trauma

Penetrating injuries (see also, gunshot wound & stab wound sections)

Broken Spine

Lung Trauma

Heart (Blunt Cardiac Injury)

Bladder Trauma

Spleen Trauma

Intestinal Trauma

Liver Trauma

Pancreas Trauma

Kidney Trauma

Arms/Hands/Legs/Feet

General Information | More

Fractures

Dislocations

Sprains

Strains

Muscle Overuse

Muscle Bruise

Bone Bruise

Carpal tunnel syndrome

Tendon pain

Bruises

Injuries to ligaments

Injuries to tendons

Crushed Hand

Crushed Foot

Broken Hand

Broken Foot

Broken Ankle

Broken Wrist

Broken Arm

Shoulder Trauma

Broken elbow

Broken Knee

Broken Finger

Broken Toe

Face

General Information

Broken Nose

Corneal Abrasion

Chemical Eye Burns

Subconjunctival Hemorrhages (Eye Bleeding)

Facial Trauma

Broken/Dislocated jaw

Fractured Cheekbone

Skin & Bleeding

General Information (Skin Injuries) | More (Arteries)

femoral artery (inner thigh)

thoracic aorta (chest & heart)

abdominal aorta (abdomen)

brachial artery (upper arm)

radial artery (hand & forearm)

common carotid artery (neck)

aorta (heart & abdomen)

axillary artery (underarm)

popliteal artery (knee & outer thigh)

anterior tibial artery (shin & ankle)

posterior tibial artery (calf & heel)

arteria dorsalis pedis (foot)

Cuts/Lacerations

Scrapes

Abrasions (Floor burns)

Bruises

Gunshot Wounds

General Information

In the Head

In the Neck

In the Shoulders

In the Chest

In the Abdomen

In the Legs/Arms

In the Hands

In The Feet

Stab Wounds

General Information

In the Head

In the Neck

In the Chest

In the Abdomen

In the Legs/Arms

General Resources

Guide to Story Researching

A Writer’s Thesaurus

Words To Describe Body Types and How They Move

Words To Describe…

Writing Intense Scenes

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