Racial stereotypes

[pmulcahy11b]

Originally Posted by 95th Rifleman

Are Wales, a fine country where men are men and sheep are scared.....

The American version is: "Texas, where men are men, the women are strong, and the sheep are scared..."

[Webstral]

Let's not even get started on the prejudices regarding the local nationals in Iraq and probably Afghanistan: they're dirty, corrupt, dishonest, and lazy. We used to say that the only Iraqis who got anything done were with the insurgency. Oddly enough, no one ever mentions the commitment to hospitality.

[Medic]

Well, here's pretty much what Finns have for stereotypes:

Swedes - in all Finnish jokes, Swedish men are gay and stupid, but in military matters, the Swedes are considered too democratic (if you try to make decissions in a multinational force with Swedes involved, they want to put everything to vote regardless of what the ranking officer says)

Russians - boozed up, corrupt slackers, who cut the lines. Also, some of the noveau rich own fancy cars and come to Finland for shopping. The 'ancient enemy'. Most Finns know three phrases in russian: "Stoj!", "Ruki vehr!", "Idi tsuda!"

Americans - ignorant, bullyish, loud. Stick their noses in to the matters of other nations, feeling all high and mighty. 'Bringing democracy' to other nations, but can not even run elections in a democratic manner (referring to the Bush vs. Gore elections).

Danes - Swedes with speach impediment.

Irish - Our brothers from abroad. Love to drink, sing and fight when drunk, just like us.

Finns - quiet and brooding. Always bickering about something. In a fight with the Russians, one Finn is equal to ten Russians (the only question is what happens, if the eleventh Russian arrives the scene?).

[B.T.]

First of all: I'd prefer to call it "national stereotypes". We do not see many Asians or "coloured"* people in Germany (At least not as many as in several other countries.).
I can imagine, that this may be different in other countries/armed forces. But I'm not jumping on that train!
The attitude towards people with another skin colour/racial background has never been issued in one of our T2k-sessions. We have two non-caucasian characters in my player group, a black former ballet dancer (PC), and an Amerindian medic, James "Dancing Crow" Travis (NPC). They have been added to add a little flavor to the game, but their background is not a big issue.

I think, national stereotype or prejudice would depent on the situation: It makes a difference, if you (being part of an American unit in Poland) had friendly encounters with people from other NATO forces. They may say:
"All Greeks are >Insert your favorite prejudice on Greeks!<, but Venizelos is pretty cool. He's a real good shooter and never let one of us down! Very hard-working and allways sober!"
Having been in contact with someone over a longer period may change your perception!

But, off course, I use some cliches:
Soviet: Brutal, poorly equipped (even to T2k-standards), determined to do a good job in the eyes of their leaders.
A Soviet unit would not bother to wreak havoc to a cottage or settlement and it's inhabitants, if they think, this action would help their plans.

Polish (military): Hard fighting and professional. In contrast to a lot of other forces, the Polish soldier is aware, that he fights in his own country. He will try to be "frienly" towards civilians, because these are his brethren.

American: This is strange. The players in my group portray Americans. In certain situations the Americans in my game behave like real-life Germans. Given the distribution of Hollywood movies (and American TV shows!), this is not a problem. Just watch TV and you will find a lot of American cliche-types to copy for the game.

Germans: I tend to portray rear echelon types or staff members very bureaucratic. They are more interested in formality or discipline than most other forces. But I think there would not be too much difference in behaviour, if you look at the front line troops.


* No offense intended: I have to admit, I'm very uncertain, how people with black skin are called nowadays. Are they "Afro-American", "coloured", "black"? Hm, I don't know.

[95th Rifleman]

I hadn't given much thought to black/white/asian attitudes. I think it's because while racsim does exist in the UK, it's not such a major issue in the military. This is both historical and cultural since we did not have slavery in the UK (we had indentured servitude which made slaves out of white criminals) and in many of our Empire territories we relied heavily on native levies which, over time, created a sense of rspect for non-white fighting men. Even today we have a large number of non-white soldiers from commonwealth territories serving in the British armed forces (Fijians in the RLC and line regiments and the Royal Ghurka Rifles being two very good examples).

[weswood]

Originally Posted by pmulcahy11b

The American version is: "Texas, where men are men, the women are strong, and the sheep are scared..."

Don't you mean cows?....Wait, that doesn't sound good either.

[Sanjuro]

For the British, add sneaky (since summer 1918, anyway).
The 1918 summer offensive opened with the usual massive artillery barrage, when it ended the Germans came out or their dugouts and waited- only for the attack to come fifty miles down the line, with prepositioned tanks etc (brought up at night, with the roads covered in straw to conceal their tracks- and the straw swept up before dawn so the Germans reconaissance flights had nothing to see). We've stayed sneaky ever since- both the pre D-Day "Pas de Calais" bluff, and the GW1 "attacking straight into Kuwait" bluff were laregly British creations.
They used to say the sun never set on the British Empire. This was because God didn't trust us in the dark!

[Webstral]

Originally Posted by Sanjuro

They used to say the sun never set on the British Empire. This was because God didn't trust us in the dark!

Based on the Argentine experience outside Port Stanley, God has good reason not to trust British infantry in the dark.

[95th Rifleman]

Originally Posted by Sanjuro

For the British, add sneaky (since summer 1918, anyway).
The 1918 summer offensive opened with the usual massive artillery barrage, when it ended the Germans came out or their dugouts and waited- only for the attack to come fifty miles down the line, with prepositioned tanks etc (brought up at night, with the roads covered in straw to conceal their tracks- and the straw swept up before dawn so the Germans reconaissance flights had nothing to see). We've stayed sneaky ever since- both the pre D-Day "Pas de Calais" bluff, and the GW1 "attacking straight into Kuwait" bluff were laregly British creations.
They used to say the sun never set on the British Empire. This was because God didn't trust us in the dark!

Heh, yeah, I've always been fascinated by the way the British military used misdirection and obfuscation during WW2, especialy in the desert where they built dummy units and hid entire tank squadrons in plain sight.