User blog comment:Hippogriff12/The Scarcity of Racists in Skyrim/@comment-76.93.61.174-20120727233834

Racisim is defined as the belief that a group of people are different based on their "race"/ethnicity. As humans this classification of "race" is usually based on the amount of Melanin in the skin. All humans share a near-identical genetic make-up, and skin pigmintation is a purly cosmetic difference. This means we are all of the same "race".

This is not true of the Elder Scrolls universe, as there are many different sapient "races" across Tamriel. Thus the classification of a "racist" is not the same. It would be calling someone that has a natural distaste of cats a racists, in the same way it is to call the Nords racist for disliking the Khajiit. The belief that a Nord is different to a Khajiit is justified, because they are different. In the same way a Human is different to a house cat.

Holding two different races or species to the same standard is not a justified view.

The problem is many people do not understand what racist means, and have a habit of throwing it around at the wrong times. Most usually when they mean Xenophobic. And the many people in the games are in fact Xenophobic. The Nord's distrust of the Dark elves and Argonians (in Windhelm) is because they are different to the Nords.

Also, just as some food for thought, there are tecnically only 3 "races". The races of Man, Mer(elves), and Beast.

Imperials, Nords, Breten, and Redguards are all of the race of Man.

Dunmer, Altmer, Bosmer, Orsimer (Orcs), Dwemer, and Falmer are all of the race of Mer. (all end in "mer" too)

Argonians and Khajiit are both considered beast races, as they don't fit into the other two. However they are quite different.