Category:Fantastic Racism: Difference between revisions

{{IndexTrope}}

[[File:8511241 5354.jpg|link=The Berenstain Bears|frame|Note the Maoist-era Chinese garb on the kids. They pulled out all the stops.]]

{{quote|''"Racism was not a problem on the [[Discworld]], because - what with trolls and dwarfs and so on - speciesism was more interesting. Black and white [[Enemy of My Enemy|lived in perfect harmony and ganged up on green]]."''|'''[[Terry Pratchett]]''', ''[[Discworld/Witches Abroad|Witches Abroad]]''}}

A subset of the old trick of dealing with thorny issues through [[Does This Remind You of Anything?|metaphor]]. Instead of having the hero encounter racism between, say, whites and blacks in the American [[Deep South]], or between ethnic Czech and Roma in the Czech Republic, or between Ainu and Japanese, or any other sets of real-world groups, they encounter racism between two-headed aliens and three-headed aliens, or between [[Elves vs. Dwarves|Elves and Dwarves]], or [[Fur Against Fang|Werewolves and Vampires]], [[Un-Equal Rites|witches and wizards]], humans and [[What Measure Is a Non Super|super humans]] or [[Just a Machine|humans and intelligent robots]], or even [[Robots Enslaving Robots|robots and robots]].

Note that this can also cover other types of prejudice; anti-homosexual sentiment, religious differences, and so on.

Related to [[Space Jews]], in which ''the story'' has dubious racist overtones. Also related to [[Have You Tried Not Being a Monster?]], when monsters are used as a metaphor for alternative sexual identity, rather than race. [[Fantastic Slurs]] are often involved, as are [[Monster Rights Movement]]s. [[Real Life]] weaselly lines like [[Some of My Best Friends Are X]] may feature. The undesired minorities may be rounded up inside a [[Fantastic Ghetto]], they may also be the targets of [[Super Human Trafficking]].

If the point of the story is to show the evils of racism, this trope can lead to a [[Broken Aesop]] if there are in fact [[Fantastic Aesop|good in-universe reasons to discriminate]] against a certain type of creature (say, because they need to drink human blood in order to survive, or they genuinely don't have free will or a sense of ethics like humans do).

Also note that [[Tropes Are Not Bad]]: most people wouldn't believe in a world where elves, dwarves, aliens, etc got along with perfect harmony, because their own experiences of different groups' interactions don't bear that out. Its called ''[[Incredibly Lame Pun|Fantastic Racism]]'' for a reason.

If the racism appears to be spilling into something a little less fantastic and into something more real, it's [[Values Dissonance]].

See also [[People of Hair Color]], which can be another occasion for racism in fantasy.

Remember [[Square Peg, Round Trope]] when applying examples to this page.

{{noreallife|those would be cases of ''real'' racism, which is outside the scope of this trope.}}

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Otherness Tropes]]

[[Category:Prejudice Tropes]]

[[Category:Speculative Fiction Tropes]]

[[Category:Fantastic Sapient Species Tropes]]

[[Category:Wall Banger (Darth Wiki)/Star Trek]]

[[Category:Urban Fantasy Tropes]]

[[Category:Race Tropes]]

[[Category:Human Rights Issues]]

[[Category:Fantastic Racism]]