Message no. 1

From:	Anders Swenson anders@**********.com
Subject:	Rascism in CalFree
Date:	Tue, 1 Jun 1999 09:18:04 -0700

----- Original Message -----
From: Rand Ratinac <docwagon101@*****.com>
To: <shadowrn@*********.org>
Sent: Monday, May 24, 1999 5:50 PM
Subject: RE: [GRIDSEC] Political/Racism Threads
...

. It's completely unbelievable that a large
> portion of the people of Redding and northern CalFree would NOT hate
> elves because of what Tir Tairngire did. It's completely unbelievable
> that the residents of San Fran and many other Californians would not
> hate the Japanese for their occupation. And we KNOW that in SR times,
> the Japanese look down on metahumans as less than human.
>
> Basically, CFS was a lose/lose situation. Either they don't do it, or
> they drop racism out and it becomes unrealistic - or they do it and
> they include racism. They went the latter, and, IMO, they did it pretty
> well. Of course, I'm not a redneck elf-hater ( :) ) or Japanese, so I
> wasn't picked on in the book.
>
> *Doc' is doomed.

The elves invaded CalFree and fought over/conquered thousands of square
miles of sparsely inhabited forest land. The Elf and Japanese incursions
would generate political hatred rather than rascist hatred, although the
two certainly become confused in certain small minds.
Also, there's the whole Aztlan question, never really dealt with yet,
California has a huge Chicano-American population (did I get that right
Adam?) many of whom would survive the first half of the 21st century to live
in CalFree. Aztlan is the third political enemy of CalFree, and that issue
hasn't been even approached in anything I remember reading. I recall writing
something on the topic, but that was for the version of CalFree that FASA
canned.
Also, don't forget: CalFree is also the home to the descendants of all
those 'bleeding-heart liberals' who wouldn't admit to racism in a Humanis
torture chamber. --Anders