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So I'm writing a book right now about a species of furred creatures that are also shapeshifters. They're not human but they are capable of donning the appearance of humans.
For reasons integral to the plot of the story, their fur comes in all different colors and when they shapeshift the magic automatically selects the skin/hair/eye color closest to their true coloration.
The result of this is a community of, to human observers, mixed-race couples. My concern is that readers will think of this as a political statement of some sort. While I'd be proud to be considered a proponent for equality, I wouldn't deserve the title. Additionally, such a reaction might result in my being pigeon-holed as a "political" writer, when I'm just trying to write fantasy.
In my mind, the characters' "race" is meaningless, as they aren't human themselves and therefore don't care about human social issues. After all, if humans could shapeshift into dogs, would they really care what color the dog's fur was? They'd just be like, "Cool! I'm a dog! Watch me wag my tail!"
The only other solution is to rearrange the couples and pair them up like the "matchmaking" episode of an eighties cartoon. Pink guy gets pink girl, green guy gets green girl, blue guy is interested in green girl for a while, but then realizes that blue girl is really his soul mate.
This might not even help, as the same people might then decide I'm a proponent for "marrying only within one's race."
Ugh. I guess racists are going to be racists no matter how I approach the issue.
For reasons integral to the plot of the story, their fur comes in all different colors and when they shapeshift the magic automatically selects the skin/hair/eye color closest to their true coloration.
The result of this is a community of, to human observers, mixed-race couples. My concern is that readers will think of this as a political statement of some sort. While I'd be proud to be considered a proponent for equality, I wouldn't deserve the title. Additionally, such a reaction might result in my being pigeon-holed as a "political" writer, when I'm just trying to write fantasy.
In my mind, the characters' "race" is meaningless, as they aren't human themselves and therefore don't care about human social issues. After all, if humans could shapeshift into dogs, would they really care what color the dog's fur was? They'd just be like, "Cool! I'm a dog! Watch me wag my tail!"
The only other solution is to rearrange the couples and pair them up like the "matchmaking" episode of an eighties cartoon. Pink guy gets pink girl, green guy gets green girl, blue guy is interested in green girl for a while, but then realizes that blue girl is really his soul mate.
This might not even help, as the same people might then decide I'm a proponent for "marrying only within one's race."
Ugh. I guess racists are going to be racists no matter how I approach the issue.