Board Thread:General Discussion/@comment-4010415-20141223120240/@comment-25258408-20150107233630

You're totally right. These are judgements everyone makes, some more so than others. I myself made an incorrect judgement based on pre-existing stereotypes today. Because of that, I see Weiss' actions and beliefs as having more complex causes than just racism:

1: She's judgmental. She judges people based on initial impressions or appearance. That's why she was a jerk to Ruby at first, why she fell for Neptune and why she disliked Jaune (I'm not sure she does anymore). Her judging Sun based on his actions was more Weiss being Weiss as opposed to Weiss being racist.

2: Her upbringing. She was raised in a family that openly discriminates against the faunus, judging from the White Fang's hatred of the Schnees and Blake's comments about controversial labor forces. While Weiss has proven to be more than capable of recognizing how her and her family's beliefs are different, there's no denying that she has been heavily influenced by the environment she was raised in (spoiled, arrogant, ambitious, etc.). That's the only part of her that I see as truly racist, in the way that Cardin and Roman are. It's also something she seems to be growing out of, as she has gone from not caring about Velvet to showing concern for her when she returned from her mission.

3: The White Fang and its effect on her life. I see this as the biggest cause for Weiss' actions. Her and her family have been targeted for quite some time. As such, she's probably lived her whole life in fear of them, hearing about all the horrible things they've done and how they've killed members of the Schnee family. She also blames the White Fang for her issues with her father and difficult childhood, as it was their actions that made him so angry (how his anger manifested itself to Weiss, we have no idea). This reason is why I prefer to call Weiss discriminatory as opposed to racist. She hates the White Fang, a group made up of faunus. By association, she mistrusts and assumes the worst of their kind. She discriminates against the faunus not mainly because they're faunus, but because their kin makes up the White Fang.

TL;DR: While I think that racism isn't Weiss' main issue with the faunus, she's still discriminatory in a different way and I hope to see her resolve those issues.