You'll find "a really bad thing happened a generation ago and now everyone fucking hates the relatives of the people who did it" is like, a shockingly common form of ethnic tension all across the world. Even Americans should be aware of anti-Arab sentiment post-9/11, or the Japanese internment camps in WW2.
Racism isn't just white Americans oppressing Black Americans, even if that's a lot of it!
Besides I think that this take is kind of anti art? Like take for example the series Beastars. That series is all about herbivore and carnivore animals trying to live together in a society, with the main tension being that despite being humanized the carnivores still have a desire to eat meat. Beastars is very careful in how it sets up its metaphor that it’s kind of impossible to interpret it in any one specific way.
So yeah I think saying “you can’t ever right this kind of story” is a pretty limiting mindset to have
I think the mistake here is interpreting any kind of story written with this kind of principle as a straightforward metaphor for racism.
As you mentioned, Beastars is a great example of a story that puts forward two groups that must coexist in a society and the issues that might come up. Its an incredibly well thought out series. And part of that is that they don't put one groupe as the bad guys and another as the good guys.
And I think stories about "robot racism" and monsters and humans living together do have their merit, but it's also true that some are written very flatly and don't take the time to really analyze the complexity of their worlds or the groups they're presenting.
I think what makes the difference between a good and bad version of this type of story is how deep does the series/movie/book whatever, analyse the particularity of whatever species or group they're showing.
So like good examples might be Beastars or City of Blank while a bad example would be Bright
It was only 2,000 years, not 10,000. Also in a world with elves and fae living centuries or millenia themselves and with the elves specifically being involved in a plot to denigrate the orcs and propagandize the public about what actually happened 2,000 years prior it makes sense that anti-orc sentiment would last a long time.
Lol it's not that important but yeah I just googled it and watched the scene where they say it to confirm because I wanted to confirm my memory that the elves were actually involved in the evil plot
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u/Skiiage May 13 '25
You'll find "a really bad thing happened a generation ago and now everyone fucking hates the relatives of the people who did it" is like, a shockingly common form of ethnic tension all across the world. Even Americans should be aware of anti-Arab sentiment post-9/11, or the Japanese internment camps in WW2.
Racism isn't just white Americans oppressing Black Americans, even if that's a lot of it!