#so i’m not upset abt this result but i’m not overjoyed

[sheltoner]

congrats to jannik, a little sad for frances, but i can be happy with this outcome

[evfryder]

quirezia's psa abt anti romanism w/ the khajiit

so, as we all know, the elder scrolls is a pretty racist game series. this is a well known and pretty indisputable fact, demonstrated by things like the heavy anti indigenous racism, the orientalism with the dunmer and other stuff, but something i personally haven't really seen talked about is the incredible amount of anti romanism w/ the khajiit. which, yknow, i'm not exactly upset over as the vast majority of tes fans aren't romani, but! it's still bad and it makes me so goddamn uncomfortable at the best of times! i don't deserve to have panic attacks over the amount of racism that is subjected to my eyes over cat people! so here is my public service announcement

note: i'm not like, 100% sure the writers of the elder scrolls were intending any of this or meaning to code the khajiit as romani, and i'm not going to claim that, but that doesn't change that i have seen people use real life nazi propaganda to justify why the nords are right to hate the khajiit or that most people who notice these things read the khajiit as romani lmfao so! and i'm also not an authority on this and i don't want to be treated like one. this is just my romani opinion, other romani people might have differing opinions and that's alright. gadje don't get to argue w/ me abt any of this tho ❤

note part two : gypsy is a slur. this is not debatable, do not try to debate it with me, and do not use it. remove it from your vocabulary. any uncensored use of it within this post is because i'm romani and allowed to use it lmfao

so anyways, most of the romani coding comes from skyrim, by way of introducing the khajiit caravans, full of people hailing from a south asian coded country with a history of slavery, that travel from city to city, relying on nomadicism, due to being barred from the cities because of stereotypes that paint the khajiit as thieves and drug addicts who face racism as a result of things like that.

if you know anything about the romani, this probably sounds familiar! as we're also a south asian diaspora who are traditionally nomadic and have been enslaved, who face severe racism and are heavily stereotyped to be thieves and drug addicts. i've even personally been told that i'm dirty trash who shouldn't be allowed in a city! fun.

this alone isn't a problem. i would love to have some representation, even in the form of cat people, and if this was all there was with the khajiit and romani coding i would honestly be overjoyed! but alas.

the problem is that the khajiit are actually portrayed as thieves and drug users within the games. in ESO, the baandari clan honor the bandit god and follow a code that allows thievery, and practice fucking fortune telling. in skyrim, in skyrim, ri'saad is a fence for the thieves guild who accepts the offer after being given moon sugar and ahkari is hinted to be involved with to the skooma trade. the khajiit overall are cultural drug users, and while there is absolutely nothing wrong with cultural drug use and drug use in general i hope you can see why its bad in this context.

and even with all of this, if this was where it began and end, it wouldn't be that bad. as far as i know, this is all accidental, and none of this is what keeps me up at night. what bothers me is how fans react to the romani elements of the khajiit.

i've had to see the use of the g word, something that is personally very triggering to me, almost everywhere, both casually and in a demeaning manner. i've seen the khajiit described as the scum of tamriel that live in scum infested sewers hooked on skooma and live off of imperial assistance (which is another thing that i've been told in regards to my people, that we're scum who live off of government assistance). i've seen khajiit called useless drug addicts who have no home. i've seen people say they see khajiit as dirty, filthy gypsies and tend to imagine skinning them for wall hangers.

it's tiring. it fucking hurts on a whole different level to see a slur utilized against your people and against you everywhere, hurts to know that people still view you and your people as a dirty and subhuman, and i'm honestly pretty done if we're being honest. tes has been ruined for me because of this stuff. and i'm not even asking for y'all to pay for me Ethnic Therapy Tm lol all i'm asking is that gadje learn about anti romanism and what that means, learn how they can support romani people, that they stop using the g word and perpetuating anti romani things, and that y'all don't let others get away with racism against romani people anymore