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Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/41591
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

> So should I use racism as one of the parts of my worldbuilding? Or write a story without racism as part of my worldbuilding?

## Yes, you should add racism to your worldbuilding. Wait – hear me out.

Racism is real, and it's an "_ism_" – I mean, it's a society-shaping force. Racism is not neighbor squabbles between an elf and a dwarf. Racism shapes the tiers of society, and the geography of neighborhoods. It is woven into the schools, the politics, the national identity, and the fairytales.

Racism is why maidens are "fair", pirates are "swarthy", and gypsies sleep outside the city gates. It is defined by a power imbalance that is maintained through institutions, curfews, the legal system, who gets to be mayor and who is a servant, which religions are pushed to the fringes, and taxes on foreign spices at the trade market.

Your story doesn't have to be about race, or _acknowledge_ racism as a theme. But in nearly every fantasy adventure you'll have a "Dorothy Gale" stepping out into a strange world. That world has structure: haves and have-nots. People with power, and the underclass. This is not topsy-turvy power. There is a clear oppressor and an oppressed. Tigers and bunnies. This power dynamic is never reversed.

It stays that way because the oppressor race is – ongoing – decimating the oppressed by imprisoning their leaders, robbing their workers, and marginalizing their children. You'll have pockets where the structure is strictly enforced, and other geographic areas where the structure is relaxed but not reversed (tigers and bunnies co-existing, but no bunny-eating tigers). It is the "terrain" of your society.

**What you don't want** is racism just to justify racist characters: the Southern sheriff, the Nazi commandant. That's a self-serving loop. It will always feel "preachy" and artifical.

**What you do want** is racism that creates a ghetto and an opera house, banks and slums, all in the same city. You want the kind of racism that gives your characters _terrain handicaps_. It's not enough that they go to exotic places, they should experience situations and reactions that de-center and challenge them. The storyworld is at least equal to, if not greater than the character in importance to the stakes.

They stick out, they don't know how to behave, they need help from wary locals. But also they are treated unfairly, misjudged, and run afoul of authority. Maybe they witness injustice, or get unearned glory. It forces them to adapt and grow, and teaches learnable "rules" for the world. This makes your worldbuilding relevant to the story. It offers plot points and narrative obstacles.

Since Star Trek was mentioned, remember it was the utopian ideal _in-world_, but also this was a fresh take at the time and it was almost like a UN mission. Everyone from different countries. I think the current cliché is the 2 warrior enemies who form a respect on the battlefield, but none of these acknowledge the real power dynamic of how racism works, and continues today. You don't have to solve it or necessarily build your story around it, but ignoring racism is going to be like ignoring physics. It depends on the story you're telling and how realistic/escapist you want it to be. You say "dark" so, I don't see how you gain by pretending it doesn't exist. You are not writing utopian Star Trek. You should add racism, and allow it to inform the world you build and the story you write.

Original score: 14