I'm gearing up to run the now iconic adaptation of CoC's Masks of Nyarlathotep using the Adventure! rules.

Given the setting and content, I'm trying to work out to what degree I should factor in the real world discrimination and prejudices of the period, or whether I should just gloss it over.

I'd be interested in other peoples experiences.

heya man, interresting topic. i've run games before where racism was kind of the central pointo f the developing story and i t can be a very touchy situation. it's kind of up to two considerations:

first, you have to be sure your players are okay with it. this can best be handled by developing a strong social contract that asks outright what the comfort level for the players is with the exploration of racism in their game. ask them what they think. are they okay with small things, like people looking down on the black waitstaff at a restaurant? calling jazz "negro music"? is it okay to use more forward and obvious racism in some of the characters... if one of your NPCs is perhaps a stereotypical southern tycoon, perhaps he could vocalize thoughts on why the country would be better if the black population were still enslaved, or if the chinese didn't start emigrating en masse. it's all very touchy stuff and should probably always be used to highlight how disgusting racist thought is.

also, you have to consider realism. what was the outlook on minority races at the time? how would this impact play? If we're talking 1920s CoC, my personal favourite, then we'd have a great number of "levels" of racism. you'd have the southern people that saw through their parents the rise and fall of a great Confederate Empire, and they in part blame the destruction on the black population.

there are the new generation of mostly rich, upperclass east coasters who were a part of flapper culture. these kids had discovered the energy and vibrancy of black culture and wanted desperately to emulate it. Some were flappers and revolutionaries at the time because, to them, it was the only right course of action, or they may have found something beautiful in these other cultures, like the blacks and chinese. Many were just as racist as any other person though, but in a kind of backhanded sort of way. These people were clinging to black culture mostly as a rebelious turn against their "establishment" forefathers who may have fought for the abolition of slavery, but not for the right of the black man to get the same education and jobs that their sons can get, basically doing it to get up their parents nose and raise a little hell. Hell, you have "checkerboard chicks" (yes, i know that's more of a fifties term, but it applies here as well) who date black men simply because they're black and it makes for gossip. Then of course you have the racism against the irish, the italians, the jewish, the hispanics and the chinese.

how much of this do you feel like you want to bring across? how much of this do the players feel comfortable seeing? you can get some really great role-playing opportunities out of this, but you really have to find the comfort level with your other players first.

i ran a game of Abberant set in inner-city, ghetto Brookly where the players had all grown up together, being from different ethnic backgrounds but having the same life experience. then they got superpowers and were enticed by different gangs to join up with them. My players at first were okay with the depiction of the gritty, urban environment, but after a while found it uncomfortable trying to cling to the "reality" that i wanted to depict in that setting and the game fell apart. it happened mainly because i didn't have a social contract.

hope that helps man.

laters

It's a very interesting and sticky topic. It just so happens that, not too long ago, I was in a nearly identical situation. I have to agree with Micheal's point that it really comes down to the social contract. I'd go so far as to suggest that everyone in your group actively voice their opinion on just how much racism they'd like in the game. Even if no one feels offended it's possible that no one will think that the racism will add anything to the game either. That is to say, so long as at least one player would like to see racism in the story, and none of the players would be uncomfortable with it, then it should be included.

Now, just for the sake of saying, "Hey, look at that coincidence!", I offer the following anecdote.
I'd never dealt with racism in any of my games untill I ran "Masks" for a CoC group in Utah just a few years back. This was the first game I'd run for this particular group. Besides my wife and I were three others. One long-term gamer we'd recently met at a convention and a married couple who were eager to play "Masks" as their first RP experience.
Now, I didn't sit down and discuss racism in the game with the group before we began. It simply never crossed my mind. Once the story began, the long-term gamer, taking note that the antagonists were primarily black, and citing the fact that one of his character's best friends was murdered by a black man, decided that his character was racist. Viciously racist as it turned out. Now, my reaction as a GM was to allow the attitude, manerisms and actions of a racist character. As a host to two brand new gamers I was somewhat uncomfortable. I didn't want to bring the session to a screeching halt, so I kept a careful eye on the reactions of my other players that day. Not so much as a twitch out of them. Still concerned about how my other players were reacting to racism in our game, I managed to find an opportunity to ask each one how they felt. Each had a similar response, "My character isn't going to be racist, but I don't mind if his is."
It would seem that I was the only one at that session who was uncomfortable with the racism, and only because I was worried about how the new gamers were taking it.

As a footnote, I think that, no matter how my players feel, I would discourage racism in any of my games with a fantasy backdrop. If a D&D or Shadowrun player came to me with a character with real-world style racisms, I'd request that they find another hangup for that character.

I think if you're going to include prejudice in a game, you should do it in a way that connects with the players. In the 1920s, prejudice is generally a pretty overt thing and pretty obvious to modern day folks like us, but it wouldn't be a big thing to someone in that time to see a "white only" sign. Most people who are white in the 1920s and 30s are fine with that idea.

So for it to make an impact on the story, it should relate to them directly. Maybe the character's brother or sister is in a mixed race relationship. That's going to make waves. The player has to decide how to react to that, and it's not going to be an easy choice. In the otherwise mediocre movie Cotton Club, Gregory Hines' character is involved with a woman who was born from a mixed marriage and was light-skinned enough to pass for white during her day job. It caused personal tension.