Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-4010415-20141223120240/@comment-14909251-20150105223224

MetallicArcher wrote:

Ok, so this is like the last thing I will say about Weiss and her racism towards the faunus.

Her entire reasoning towards the faunus as an species based on her experiences with the White Fang (again, even though the timeline doesn't match) is a Generalisation Fallacy.

Saying Weiss wasn't being really racist towards the faunus is like saying that if you were affected by the attack against the World Trade Center you are excused of going about life assuming all Muslims are terrorists and being a dick to any person who is wearing a piece of clothing that allows you to identify them as Muslim. Except Weiss wasn't really doing that. She stated that she did not particularly trust Faunus and the rest of what she said was basically about the White Fang and people who have otherwise broken the law. At times her statements about them unduly focused on their Faunus heritage in a way that could be construed as racist, but that was mainly after Blake hypocritically criticized her for what was initially just expressing reasonable disdain for the White Fang.

The thing is that, when you make it all about race as the White Fang has done then it becomes all about race. Were one to look at any ethnic or racial conflict then you would find the same lack of trust and suspicion exists within both communities. It is wrong to characterize that as bigotry when it is largely a product of the racism of those waging the conflict.

Weiss is not a good example of racism as she clearly showed with her rapid turnaround concerning Blake, despite Blake literally having been part of the White Fang and it not being clear that this was in the past when Weiss apparently decided that she didn't care. Clearly, she sees Faunus as people and regards each individual separately. The White Fang were met with her disapproval because of their actions and Sun was also someone whose actions informed her initial opinions of him.

Basically, it is harder for Weiss to accept someone who is Faunus simply because she is concerned that they may hurt her as other Faunus have hurt her (emotionally or physically). I think we are talking about something less reasonable where it is just people adopting the prejudice of their environment. Cardin seems to be the classic case of someone who is racist due to it being what he knows.