Fantastic Racism: Difference between revisions

Content added Content deleted

Inline

Latest revision as of 15:01, 28 September 2023

Note the Maoist-era Chinese garb on the kids. They pulled out all the stops.

"Racism was not a problem on the Discworld, because - what with trolls and dwarfs and so on - speciesism was more interesting. Black and white lived in perfect harmony and ganged up on green."

—Terry Pratchett, Witches Abroad

A subset of the old trick of dealing with thorny issues through 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 and Dwarves, or Werewolves and Vampires, witches and wizards, humans and super humans or humans and intelligent robots, or even 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 Zombie Advocates. 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 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 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.

No real life examples, please; those would be cases of real racism, which is outside the scope of this trope.

Examples of Fantastic Racism are listed on these subpages:

@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
 {{trope}}
+[[File:8511241 5354.jpg|link=The Berenstain Bears|frame|Note the Maoist-era Chinese garb on the kids. They pulled out all the stops.]]
-<!-- %%Image selected per Image Pickin' thread: http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/posts.php?discussion=1303391323044387200 -->
+{{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 Mine|lived in perfect harmony and ganged up on green]]."''|'''[[Terry Pratchett]]'''|''[[Witches Abroad]]''}}
-<!-- %%Please do not change or remove without starting a new thread. -->
-[[File:8511241_5354.jpg|link=The Berenstain Bears|right|Note the Maoist-era Chinese garb on the kids. They pulled out all the stops.]]
+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 Versus Dwarves|Elves and Dwarves]], or [[Fur Against Fang|Werewolves and Vampires]], [[Un-Equal Rites|witches and wizards]], humans and [[Muggle Power|super humans]] or [[Just a Machine|humans and intelligent robots]], or even [[Robots Enslaving Robots|robots and robots]].
-{{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 (Literature)/Witches Abroad|Witches Abroad]]''}}
-<!-- %% One quote is sufficient. Please place additional entries on the quotes tab. %% -->
-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|Monster Rights Movements]]. [[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]].
+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 [[Zombie Advocate]]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).
@@ Line 23: / Line 17: @@
 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. [[No Real Life Examples Please]], as this is an inherently fiction only trope.
+Remember [[Square Peg, Round Trope]] when applying examples to this page.
-{{examples}}
-* [[Fantastic Racism/Advertising|Advertising]]
-* [[Fantastic Racism/Anime and Manga|Anime and Manga]]
-* [[Fantastic Racism/Comic Books|Comic Books]]
-* [[Fantastic Racism/Fan Fics|Fan Fics]]
-* [[Fantastic Racism/Film|Film]]
-* [[Fantastic Racism/Literature|Literature]]
-* [[Fantastic Racism/Live Action TV|Live Action TV]]
-* [[Fantastic Racism/Music|Music]]
-* [[Fantastic Racism/Tabletop Games|Tabletop Games]]
-* [[Fantastic Racism/Video Games|Video Games]]
-* [[Fantastic Racism/Web Comics|Web Comics]]
-* [[Fantastic Racism/Web Original|Web Original]]
-* [[Fantastic Racism/Western Animation|Western Animation]]
+{{noreallife|those would be cases of ''real'' racism, which is outside the scope of this trope.}}
+{{examples on subpages}}
 {{reflist}}
+[[Category:{{PAGENAME}}]]
 [[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:index]]
-[[Category:Fantastic Racism]]
-[[Category:Trope]][[Category:Pages with comment tags]]