Tony was an Ogre Changeling who was a giant fanged metal firebreathing bull. His description in Fae form was basically that (I don't have a copy of it, but likely someone here does). I paged him about it a while back, because it was so over the top - he's REALLY that big? I'd assumed any Changeling desc'd like that was Wyrd 8 or something and was trying to work out how to respond.
I found his human desc dodgy AF but I had no idea if he was POC or not since I've previously run into POC pcs playing similar descs for reasons I don't know about - I could speculate, but eh.
If he was MAGA, it was well hidden in any scenes I was in (no weirdness about openly queer characters, including ones that hit on him, non-Republicans, etc). I don't know what goes on when I'm not around, but in scenes I was in, he was friendly and open to being the butt of jokes. His human description was dodgy, but when paired with his Bull changeling the 'beef' comments didn't come out of nowhere.
These are the relevant posts if anyone cares:
Bourbon posted:
Look. I don't actually want to have to make rules about this because it's super subjective and weird, but I would like to ask y'all a favor. Please, please, please, if you're a white person, and you're playing a POC, and you can't describe them without mentioning their race about 20 times in the desk, using racial caricatures, throwing explicit racist dogwhistles in, comparing POC skin to food, et cetera, please just stop playing POC. Yes we all want MU* grids be less white and it's fine to play characters who aren't you IRL. I have played black folks, middle eastern folks, mixed-race folks of several types, Chinese folks - and 99% of the people who do this are fine. It's fine.
If you're not a POC and you're playing a POC, maybe take a look at your desc and just think, "does this sound like a description HP Lovecraft would write", and if it does, maybe change some things up. Please don't make me have to start actually reading your descriptions before we approve you for RP so I don't release a staff-approved piece of racist writing onto the grid, I much prefer 'make sure a desc is set and don't actually read any of it' if we're being honest.
Tony comments on Changeling
<Changeling> Tony says, “... Whoever had a problem with my character, it would have been super cool if you'd spoken to me about it rather than running and crying to staff. I made a joke in my short-desc referencing the fact that cattle are a food product, meat. It was meant only to be a fun take on being a giant slab of a man. That's it. So whoever decided to rant and complain without talking to me. Fuck off.”
<Changeling> Moon Hare, Ezra says, “I'll flatly say I wasn't one of the ones that talk to staff, but, man, it wasn't just that.”
<Changeling> Tony says, “Everyone is entitled to their opinion.”
You have left channel Changeling.
<Changeling> Tony has left this channel.
Tony comments in OOC:
Tony has connected.
Seven has partially disconnected.
Stasya says, "Tony, how do you feel about breakfast?"
Ezra has left.
Angelique says, "Breakfast is good. Depending on what."
Ragyo yawns
Tony is afraid to think about food at all, cuz, it's a bad descriptor!
Helle snickers
Ink says, "Speaking of short desc's Tony, I think it has a typo and is /Use/ your imagination."
Tony shrugs.
Tony doesn't really care at this point.
After Tony disconnected, Bourbon noted that the player who was complaining was Bourbon. Someone paged all the comments, but they are nothing that is not in the public files on +bboard 1.
Bourbon’s @mail:
Hi, Tony. We need to have a chat.
I tried to not call you out directly because in the past you've been...well, I'm not going to mince words. You've violated Rule #1 (don't be an asshole) several times and I didn't want to deal with a confrontation because I just wasn't in the mood.
You violated Rule #1 again. Against players both on public channels and in the OOC room. We're going to have to deal with that, and whether you want to continue playing on this game, and how you're going to have to behave to do so.
But more specifically, your desc and short-desc are offensively racist and you're gonna need to change them. Tony is unapproved. He will not be re-approved until you've written a desc that does not include every goddamn racist stereotype and dehumanizing trope. I highly suggest you take some time to educate yourself on these, and on common racist dogwhistles, if you're not already.
If you're incapable of maturely handling criticism or changing, then to be blunt, we will ask you to leave.
If I get a SINGLE other report of you harassing players, via page or on channel? You will be asked to leave.
If you're an asshole in this interaction? You will be asked to leave.
I have little patience for this kind of behavior and trying to treat you nicely made it worse. Your desc and short-desc are going to be cleared. Write new ones.
Tony’s @mail:
‘There's really no point. You came after me like I was the bad guy without ever discussing anything with me. You vilified me on public bboards, and then painted me as the confrontational person. You could have talked to me like a rational person, but you chose not to. I AM A POC. I don't appreciate being called racist in public. I don't think you should be weaponizing a persons ethnicity without knowing anything about the person. So, there's really no real point is there. You have decided to paint me in whatever light you have. Accused me of violating rules multiple times. And I didn't violate any rules in the OOC room, so that's just blatantly false. I have a feeling you don't really care about that though given how aggressively you've come at me. Communication is key, you have never tried to communicate with me, good luck.’
Bourbon: The player of Tony, Trev, Justice, and Vali blew up today on public channels, in the OOC room, and sent offensive pages to players privately. When confronted, he decided to blow up at me. He decided to leave NOLA and we've agreed with him that this was the most appropriate course of action, and removed his option to return.
I don't have any of the private pages, (including any of the pages between Bourbon and Tony). I have no idea how he behaved. I had the impression he was friendly. People paged me asking me what the blowups were, because players did not recognise those reactions as blowups. So here, as far as I know, they are. I was only sent the Changeling ones, and the OOC room stuff, not any on any other groups. For all I know there's an OOC log out there with an actual blow up.
When I did log on, I was asked by multiple characters (three, on this) if I had reported harassment - specifically with the 'We aren't angry at whoever did, but did anyone other than Bourbon report harassment?' bent. And a few more going 'what the heck, what was the OOC room fight? What was the Cha fight?'
If I could pick out anything from his rp, it would be that he loved playing huge capable black dude. The food stuff in his desc bothered me less (we have soooo many caramel/mocha characters?) than the association of danger=big black guy which felt dodge, but...I've been wrong before with POC playing POC, like I said..
