So I was doing some thinking recently, and had an interesting realization. S.D. Smith has created a world that feels real and authentic, paralleling many aspects of our own. An unfortunate reality is that in that world, as in our own, prejudice is present even among those who profess to be part of the noble Cause of the Mending. This prejudice comes in various forms, which are considered below.

Regionalism

The idea of a bias against someone because of their place of origin actually shows up quite early in the series. Specifically, Sween Longtreader points out that the reason her husband sounds “sophisticated and clever” is because he’s from east of Nick Hollow. That in itself doesn’t sound too bad. But when she adds that rabbits from Nick Hollow are “perfectly ordinary” by comparison, it creates the impression that Nick Hollow rabbits consider their speech mode to be “normal” and that of rabbits from elsewhere to be peculiar, at least.

Of course, Sween isn’t alone in making such statements. Emma, in describing Dr. Zeiger, blames his “strange” speech on his distant point of origin. She goes on to say that it’s even further away than Heather and Picket’s home, and she comments that the manner in which they talk is “funny.” Likewise, Kyle is astonished to hear that Heather and Picket are unfamiliar with Terralain. He quickly blames it on the “sheltered lives” they had in “far away” Nick Hollow.

Of course, perhaps the biggest offenders in regard to this are Cheltham and Lokson in The Archer’s Cup. Lokson’s arguments for his replacing Ronan as citadel lord include the fact that Ronan is not originally from Blackstone, unlike Lokson and several of his ancestors. Cheltham, meanwhile, freely badmouthed not only Halfwind, but Kingston as well in comparison to his home citadel of Harbone.

Sexism

It should perhaps come as no surprise that another displays of prejudice in the series comes from Picket Longtreader, near the beginning of what might charitably be termed his “difficult” phase. He claims to be above certain behavior “Because [he’s] not a silly doe.” Unfortunately, Helmer also displays something of this attitude later, when he derides Picket for having “a doe’s fear of heights.” Fortunately, whilst in the midst of helping to cure each other of other forms of stupidity, Helmer and Picket seem to have also overcome their respective bouts of toxic masculinity. As far as I recall, we never read of them making such comments again.

The Longtreader administration in Akolan also seems to have pretty sexist viewpoints and practices. Enslaved bucks are all subjected to grueling physical labor, whereas does are forced into domestic service and manufacturing jobs. Loath though I am to compare a free citadel to Akolan, I do feel compelled to mention a similar situation at Kingston. Heyna Blackstar mentions that, though bucks and does are all expected to work hard in her home citadel, warfare is something expected of all bucks and forbidden to all does. It was only the fact that Heyna was Lord Blackstar’s daughter and that her own mother had been killed by the enemy that apparently allowed her to sidestep this tradition.

Weezie also makes comments stereotyping most if not all bucks as “slow-witted” and “thick-skulled.” She was trying to tease Picket out of his tendency to brood, so it’s possible she didn’t really mean it. And some bucks certainly do seem to deserve that reputation. Case in point, the Blackstone officer who seemed particularly contemptuous of Emma and Heyna for being does.

Ageism

There’s a fair amount of commentary in The Green Ember with regard to age, and some of it turns nasty.

Before getting a close look at Helmer, Picket is under the impression that #BestLordCaptain #LastLordCaptain is younger than he actually is. He apparently thought that an older rabbit wouldn’t be capable of Helmer’s impressive acrobatics. Similarly, in Ember Falls Picket places a bit too much emphasis on age. In light of Lord Ramnor and Captain Frye both being somewhat older, Picket concludes that Halfwind’s defense now relies heavily on the Fowlers, all of whom-excepting Helmer-are much younger.

Helmer, of course, has-or at least pretends to have-similarly low opinions of rabbits who are younger. When Picket comments on how you never hear about “a wise young nurse”, Helmer retorts that “a wise young anything” is an impossibility. Later, when Picket makes an optimistic comment, Helmer retorts that both the day and Picket aren’t particularly old yet.

Jone Wissel also uses “old hag” as a derogatory term, which is a bit rich. Maybe she subscribes to the philosophy “You’re only as old as you feel”, but still. That doesn’t stop it from being painful when Lieutenant Kout, taking her into custody for her latest theft, addresses her as “Old Crone Jone.”

Captain Truff, upon being confronted by both Jo Shanks and Coleden Blackstar, dismisses both of them based on his own greater age and experience. Captain Redthaw of Harbone may have had similar, if softer sentiments, once commenting that a buck was “a young soldier, but a good one”, as though young and good are mutually exclusive.

Classism

There is definitely a class system at work among rabbitkind, and it’s been a thing for a long time. Way back on Golden Coast, rabbits who mined coal, or at least their profession, apparently got disrespect from those who mined gold and those who employed gold miners. Even in Natalia, some of the surviving nobles seemed to view Fleck’s opinion as less valuable solely based on the fact that he was a peasant. It went both ways, as Galt had little good to say about rabbits of wealth and privilege.

Kyle, in his description of Winslow to Heather, disparages those he calls “high-borns.” However, this turns out to be part of his deceptions, as Kyle himself is actually not only nobility, but outright royalty. In a rather more honest display, Maggie Weaver notes that she is respected for her wisdom despite being a commoner. This seems to imply a culture in which wisdom is held by the upper class.

Cheltham-man, that guy is coming up a lot in this discussion-also displays a regard for status based on birth. He readily dismisses the idea that Jo, a commoner, would be a suitable match for a lord’s daughter. That is, unless Jo proved himself the greatest archer in Natalia. Even if he was mostly speaking from anger on behalf of his pal Lokson, I doubt he was saying anything he didn’t fully believe.

For that matter, Jo himself seems to have a bit of this attitude as well. Among his (completely ridiculous) justifications for not courting Emma is the expressed belief that, as a princess, she “needs to marry some lord or prince”. Later, he voices similar thoughts regarding his worthiness to pursue a relationship with Amber Hewson. Funnily enough, he gets straight on this matter by Cole-who is himself a noble rabbit-and by Slimmo-who is quite frankly not a rabbit you’d expect to give any good relationship advice.

Racism

This designation may come across as a bit odd at first glance. We usually think of racism as prejudice against a group of people based on their physical appearance, which can be tied to various ethnic groups. However, among rabbits colors like white or black refer to fur color, not skin color. And so far we have no examples of any rabbits holding themselves as superior, and/or others as inferior, on the basis of fur color.

Racism is also used to refer to prejudice against people of a certain ethnicity, which isn’t necessarily related to skin color. It is this definition of the term that I think has application within the world of The Green Ember. Now, this doesn’t come up too often, as the majority of rabbits we meet in the series seem to regard themselves as being part of the same ethnic group. Just about everyone is descended from rabbits who left the Blue Moss Hills with Flint’s heirs, settled on Golden Coast, and then emigrated to Natalia in the company of Whitson Mariner.

There are, however, two notable exceptions to this. As we learned in Prince Lander & the Dragon War, some of the rabbits who followed Flint’s line to Golden Coast became separated from the main company of Trekkers. They and their descendants formed their own wandering community. After a few centuries, they rejoined the other Trekkers on Golden Coast.

Unfortunately, the established rabbits there didn’t take too kindly to this unexpected arrival. As has too often been the case with minorities in our own world, the Drekkers were saddled with undesirable occupations. Even the likes of King Gerrard, Whitson Mariner, and Lander struggled initially to see past the Drekkers’ differences and recognize their value. And it took Mother Saramack and a near-civil war on top of their war with the dragons and the Grimbles to make that happen.

The other group that could perhaps be seen as victims-or perpetrators-of racism are the Terralains. We actually know very little about their origins, except that their ancestors were apparently settled in Natalia long before Whitson Mariner’s company arrived. Even less is clear about their culture at this time or afterwards, given that we only see them at points after members of Whitson’s group-Galt and later Bleston-have assumed leadership. Both of these leaders are also known to have influenced the Terralains with their own philosophies.

However, all references to the “proto-Terralains” seem to give the opinion that they are “wild”. Galt uses this terminology after learning of the group from a vision and his observations of the dragons and Grimbles. Whitson later repeats this description to his own rabbits, and Grimble also describes the Terralains with this word. Seems a tad unfair when, so far as we know, none of the three had actually met a Terralain rabbit yet.

On the flip side, we know of at least one Terralain rabbit who had an even lower opinion of any rabbit not originally from Terralain. He was quite willing to commit and order murder among those who were not Terralains, and even of Terralains who sided with outsiders to any degree. Tameth was also totally okay with helping Morbin to murder and enslave the rabbits of greater Natalia. And this based on the promise, suspect at best, that the rabbits of Terralain would be left alone.

Clearly, whatever reverence Tameth may have had for Galt, it didn’t extend to any of the rabbits whom Galt would have called kin. Of course, several rabbits of that sort did show up in Tameth’s homeland, take over, and pervert his culture to suit their own ends, which could also be seen as a racist thing to do. But as the old saying goes, two wrongs don’t make a right.

I believe I got most of the examples within the series. If anyone notices that I missed any, be sure to comment.