Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-27745396-20170905185708/@comment-80.192.6.40-20170908161841

Faunus seem to have a biological relationship to humans comparable to that of Neanderthals or Denisovans - they can interbreed so they aren't distinct enough genetically to qualify as a species IMO (though the dividing line is, as Alibeats notes, vague). Indeed Neanderthals and Denisovans are actually more in line with the classical concept of race (which of course posited differences between ethnic groups like dog breeds - the use of racism to mean xenophobia came later), as they had multiple notable differences from H. Sapiens.

So racism would be best. Not to mention that the Faunus are a stand-in for racism as well, so makes sense from an artistic perspective too.