Racial stereotypes

[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).