While reading DragonFire: Sphere of Eternity there was a moment which I’ve seen play out before; so minor spoilers for said book.
There are five characters involved in this situation, Risha, Boltock, their dead parents, Tarwin, and humans.
Humans killed Risha and Boltocks parents, which scarred them at a young age. After all, they just witnessed their parents get murdered, who wouldn’t be terrified of humans after that? This wound never heals because it gets brought up multiple times in the story. At one point Boltock nearly dies and Risha can’t stop thinking about her dead parents because she thinks Boltock is about to join them. So clearly, this wound is still fresh.
Near the end of the story, Boltock discovers a human named Tarwin and is freaked out. He’s scared of her, telling Risha and Blaze to get away from her, Risha however, tears him a new one saying things such as “she hasn’t done anything wrong” and “she’s not like the others,” framing Boltock’s reaction as bigotry and racist.
Here’s the problem...Boltock’s reaction isn’t based on him being racist, it’s him being scared.
According to Humans Right’s.gov.au, they explained racism is “More than just prejudice in thought or action. It occurs when this prejudice – whether individual or institutional – is accompanied by the power to discriminate against, oppress or limit the rights of others.” In the story, those elements are never in play. In fact, we never see any of the different races actually interact with each other for more than a couple of chapters between the Gryphons and Blaze’s party. I believe Risha might distrust the gryphons but one, that never gets clarified, and two the gryphons don’t react to her calling them “featherwings”. So yeah, at no point in the story does actual racism occur.
Please understand that fear-based prejudice CAN turn into discrimination and in this case, racism if Boltock lets it fester, however, this was his first interaction with a non-hostile human and thus isn’t what’s going on. If Boltock continues this fear with every human he meets despite them being non-hostile, and friendly where his fear turns into hatred, that’s when you can call him racist.
Look, there’s a line between being afraid of a group of people and being racist. If a bunch of green people killed some blue people, and a blue person saw the event unfold and later discovered more green people, they have every right to be cautious because of their trauma. That’s trauma, not racism.
Look, creating an entire writing advice article about racism will take several parts to get through and this isn’t that. I just wanted to talk about a common mixup I see in storytelling and wanted to use DragonFire: Sphere of Eternity to help explain it. A character being scared of a group of people after witnessing a traumatic event isn’t racism, it’s trauma.
Humans killed Risha and Boltocks parents, which scarred them at a young age. After all, they just witnessed their parents get murdered, who wouldn’t be terrified of humans after that? This wound never heals because it gets brought up multiple times in the story. At one point Boltock nearly dies and Risha can’t stop thinking about her dead parents because she thinks Boltock is about to join them. So clearly, this wound is still fresh.
Near the end of the story, Boltock discovers a human named Tarwin and is freaked out. He’s scared of her, telling Risha and Blaze to get away from her, Risha however, tears him a new one saying things such as “she hasn’t done anything wrong” and “she’s not like the others,” framing Boltock’s reaction as bigotry and racist.
Here’s the problem...Boltock’s reaction isn’t based on him being racist, it’s him being scared.
According to Humans Right’s.gov.au, they explained racism is “More than just prejudice in thought or action. It occurs when this prejudice – whether individual or institutional – is accompanied by the power to discriminate against, oppress or limit the rights of others.” In the story, those elements are never in play. In fact, we never see any of the different races actually interact with each other for more than a couple of chapters between the Gryphons and Blaze’s party. I believe Risha might distrust the gryphons but one, that never gets clarified, and two the gryphons don’t react to her calling them “featherwings”. So yeah, at no point in the story does actual racism occur.
Please understand that fear-based prejudice CAN turn into discrimination and in this case, racism if Boltock lets it fester, however, this was his first interaction with a non-hostile human and thus isn’t what’s going on. If Boltock continues this fear with every human he meets despite them being non-hostile, and friendly where his fear turns into hatred, that’s when you can call him racist.
Look, there’s a line between being afraid of a group of people and being racist. If a bunch of green people killed some blue people, and a blue person saw the event unfold and later discovered more green people, they have every right to be cautious because of their trauma. That’s trauma, not racism.
Look, creating an entire writing advice article about racism will take several parts to get through and this isn’t that. I just wanted to talk about a common mixup I see in storytelling and wanted to use DragonFire: Sphere of Eternity to help explain it. A character being scared of a group of people after witnessing a traumatic event isn’t racism, it’s trauma.
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