(09-30-2015, 08:08 PM)McBeefâ„¢ Wrote: Racism is almost always a subset of Class Warfare. It's used like a weapon to keep the lower class from uniting.Â
It's used as a threat to the people almost on the bottom, and it allows them to feel as if they have some control over an even more marginalized group of people.
I'd agree that's often how it's used -- particularly by demagogues -- but I think it's also true that racism can engender classism. After all, when the wildwood elezen are at the top, and the top is only made up of them, it's easy to see the races of the lower classes as inherently "less." So, in this case, it's not strict propaganda being employed by those at the top; they actually believe what they're selling. Social grouping and groupthink are nasty things.
In the case of Ishgard, I think we see both. I think the elezen nobility honestly does feel that the other races are lesser; after all, if they were truly equals, they'd rise to the top. However, they also actively spread this perspective as a way to hold the poor down by aiming them at the "others."
The Freelance Wizard
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((about me | about L'yhta Mahre | L'yhta's desk | about Mysterium, the Ivory Tower: a heavy RP society of mages))
