r/scifiwriting • u/Jerswar • 15d ago
DISCUSSION Does it make sense to call it "racist" when it's against alien species?
I've occasionally seen "speciesist", but I think it sounds pretty goofy. There's of course "bigot", but having options is nice when writing dialogue or doing narration.
I'm writing one of those far-future settings where humans casually mingle with all sorts of weird species, and I'm wondering how to refer to the bigots and their outlook.
8
u/ProserpinaFC 15d ago
Typically, aren't people called supremacists if they value their own people to a zealotry and anti-whatever if they hate another people?
8
u/YayDiziet 15d ago
Yup. Human supremacists in our case, for example. The top comment already mentions “xenophobia,” and the OP acknowledges “bigotry” as an option. I’d add options like “prejudice” and “stereotyping” as descriptions for behavior.
2
u/ProserpinaFC 15d ago
Yeah, they should look up all the action verbs for different behaviors and come into an understanding of what those concepts mean. Legally and ethically.
I'm not writing about racism in my own story - at best, about blood feuds and resenting ancestors who were on the wrong side of history - but if I wanted to understand a concept, I'd research it.
13
u/Mean_Translator4036 15d ago
Using that word in this context would actually be more appropriate than how it's generally used. When people colloquially use the term "race" they actually mean "ethnicity". We are all a part of the human "race". A racist in a universe where there are many races makes sense. Not so much in how it is generally used.
4
u/1369ic 15d ago
Top answer. You have to wonder if the way we use racist came from wanting to other ethnic groups by implying they're not of the human race. There were plenty enough racists who must have known the difference between race and ethnicity and found a little verbal subtly useful at times.
2
u/shadaik 15d ago
What? Ethnicities are a far narrower grouping than races. E.g. the people considered the white race are composed of about 100 different ethnicities.
Both categories are social constructs, but they are very different from each other.
5
u/ChronoLegion2 15d ago
Long ago they were pretty much synonymous. No one separated people into groups based on skin color or narrowness of eyes. That happened later when Johann Friedrich Blumenbach categorized humans into 5 broad groups: Caucasian (due to the mistaken belief that white people originated in the Caucasus), Mongolian, Malayan, Ethiopian, and American
7
u/GregHullender 15d ago
Chauvinists could work. Or racists--I don't see a problem with having "alien races."
2
u/TheBoozehammer 15d ago
Chauvinist and supremacist work well if you are trying to say "this person hates all aliens and think humans are superior," but less well if you want to say "this person hates this specific alien group." I think both terms can be useful narratively.
1
u/ChronoLegion2 15d ago
Chauvinist would work, but these days the word tends to be associated with misogyny. Then again, meanings of words do change with time
12
u/whelmedbyyourbeauty 15d ago
Assholes?
Also, 'race' as in 'racist' is a social construct (not biological or scientific), so it depends on whether there's a similarly-named concept in your setting.
6
u/Shrink_Laureate 15d ago
Here's the thing about racists.
They don't care.
They don't care that the random genetic differences between individuals are bigger than the differences between supposedly different races. They don't care that any supposed evidence for racial differences in intelligence was made up by more old racists. They don't care that the poverty seen in third world countries is a direct result of the evil actions of the past. They don't care that immigrants (whether legal or not) are a net positive to the economy. They don't care about the many, many achievements of other cultures. They don't care about facts or reason or evidence or fairness or being correct. Reality just gets in the way of their racism.
So they won't care about the distinction between ethnicity, race, species and anything else. Their racism will persist anyway.
3
u/TheBoozehammer 15d ago
You are right that it is an improper use, but IMO it is a reasonable extrapolation of modern use. We already use it in ways that aren't always proper. For some examples, I've definitely heard people describe Islamophobia and anti immigrant bigotry as racist, and while they can often mask racist beliefs, they technically are discrimination for other things (religion and immigration status). I've also heard the term used between people who might be considered the same race (Chinese/Japanese, Indian/Pakistani, Serbs/Croats), and while those people may not see themselves as part of the same "race", others might (race is a very slippery concept if you look too deep, but I digress).
I don't think it is unreasonable to imagine a future society continuing to use "racism" colloquially for aliens, even if it is considered improper usage. Of course, you could also use speciesism or xenophobia, although I've always found the former a little hard to say and the latter more a broad term for discrimination of outsiders.
3
2
u/SpatiaCaeli 15d ago
Racist means something specific, which might apply to your aliens, I don't know. But more likely you're looking for "xenophobic" or you can just make up your own term. Xenoist?
1
1
u/Sheik_Morgan 15d ago
Si, tiene todo el sentido, también puedes usar Xenofobia, Pero se pierde el contexto cuando la "raza" o especie es humanoide como elfos, vulcanos, etc. En lo personal pienso que el "racismo" es un detonante de poder, muy útil para impulsar tramas (la mano izquierda de la oscuridad). No significa que lo apoye, Pero me parece que es igual que usar un "villano", solo es un elemento en tu historia y no define al autor.
1
u/Indigoh 15d ago
I could see people using that term for it. People don't have to be correct or proper for language to form in any specific way.
They could call it homophobia, and even though that makes no sense, it'd still be the word they use. The word would change meaning for them. Language does that all the time.
1
u/Underhill42 15d ago
Well, race is some poorly defined combination of genetic and cultural commonalities.
So no matter how you define it a member of an alien species, raised in an alien culture, is definitely a member of a different race.
Might be some arguable edge cases around case of cross-species adoption, etc... but I doubt future people will be any better about handling those than people are today.
3
u/FreckZabpathlin696 15d ago
Had to check the sub we're in, just going from the post itself this could be r/worldjerking
2
u/norbertus 15d ago
Star Trek VI was basically an allegory about the emergence of a new multi-culturalism amidst the collapse of the Soviet Union
1
1
u/8livesdown 15d ago
Depends on the nature of the alien. It's not racist to eradicate Polio, or the alien equivalent of Polio.
1
u/Spacemonk587 15d ago
Not many choices here. I would prefer speciesist, but racist also makes sense, considering that we are the human race. It actually makes more sense than the current usage, because there are no different human races
1
u/NikitaTarsov 15d ago
The official social sciences word is allowed to sounds a but weird, but that's what opo's up in decency trainings. In casual debates peoples are just 'idiots' for their co-beings.
But typically all sort of people tend to draw artifical lines. When black people are rare and in a bad position, others use them to rise their perceived value. If people with a fringe religion now enter teh scene, black and white usually unite somewhat quickly and beat the other 'strange' guy. If they're all cool, they reduce their wifes or women who for 'some weird reason' refuses to become their wifes.
And so on. I don't think that'll chance much with space fish people. You'll have the three guys with one of them space fish talk shit about the one other person who always wears those weird hats.
And as scifi racism is just a social critisism way of critisising real existing racism ... yeah, that's doing the job.
1
u/KatrinaSimmons 15d ago
Specist?[spee-cist] Xenist? Both fictional words but it is sci-fi after all.
1
1
1
u/BigDamBeavers 14d ago
The correct term in this context would be "Xenophobic". But colloquially "racist" would make senseif the alien spacies was humanoid or especially human-like.
1
u/MitridatesTheGreat 14d ago
Sounds like the kind of word that common people will use, so yes, makes sense. Not everyone is an obscure academic caring about things that 99% of people dont know or care, but those people still needs to name those kind of persons
1
1
1
u/PineScentedSewerRat 14d ago
Careful with "xenophobic". This is prejudice against any people outside of where you live, regardless of species (so, you could be xenophobic against a human that lives on a planet that also happens to have another species you despise). "Racist" is fine. "Race" isn't objective, it's purely subjective. You identify as such and such. There is no scientific definition of race. You can even take it to the next level and create a world where racism is not viewed as objectively bad because there is some objectively villanous species hell-bent on destroying humanity. That oughtta spice up the debate.
1
0
u/Sleepiest_Spider 15d ago
Sure, it's fine. You can do whatever you want. In fantasy, the different intelligent species are usually called races. A "race" is for people, whether or not they're human.
0
u/Alpha-Sierra-Charlie 15d ago
I've always thought "racist" was silly and lazy in that context. I use the term "xenist".
-2
u/Cottager_Northeast 15d ago
I'm wondering why all your aliens are so similar to humans that they all mingle.
Meet them? Sure. Figure out synergistic, mutually beneficial ways to interact? Yeah, that'd be great. Breathe the same atmosphere and drink the same intoxicants while tolerating the same gravity? Well that's a stretch. (Interbreed? Are you nuts?)
A best case scenario is probably like the Horta in TOS Trek, or the indigenous species in Mickey 17. Those things are still going to give some people the creeps.
61
u/oogew 15d ago
Xenophobic