: Re: Sympathetic Racist So when designing characters an important part of them is flaws and how they overcome them or rise above them. And so I wanted to make a character(one of the main characters,

@Annie587

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Consider a flaw vs a handicap.

A flaw is the protagonist struggling against his own nature. The character arc is probably going to be about confronting a flaw, or he won't progress until he can learn to overcome it.

A handicap isn't going to change. It's just part of the character's nature, the background or the situation. It still limits the protagonist, but often in ways they don't realize, or can't do anything about.

A protagonist regrets their flaws, but lives with their handicaps.

In a racist society everyone is racist, but how active they are, how aware, how opportunistic are all still individual character traits. Racism is not a binary. You could potentially show every person in town being racist by degrees.

Your protagonist can be racist, in theory. But you know it's a problem so plot it against your timeline as it's own narrative arc, and take it seriously as a story element. If it's a flaw then his racism will need to be confronted a few times before the villain puts it into words. If it's worldbuilding do the research and add those disenfranchised voices to the story.

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