I think it should be present only because it adds to the realism and the believability of the world.

Edit: Want to hear a joke? Why do khajiits lick their butts? To get the taste of khajiit cooking out of their mouths.

Slavery isn't serious?

I was referring to their general attitudes to races.

Argonians are cunning, savage beasts incapable of enlightenment. They are blasphemous travesties of nature, with unspeakable foulness in their private and family urges. When guided by a stern hand, they can be trained as passable servants and slaves. By Imperial law, free Argonians have the rights of citizens, but no law can ever make an Argonian human.

Khajiit are clever animals, and useful servants when trained from early youth, and so long as they are kept away from skooma. They are compulsive thieves and liars, lamentable traits that can be amended by stern punishment. By Imperial law, free Khajiit have the rights of citizens. Now there are Khajiit thieves everywhere.

The Altmer are proud, conceited, and decadent. Their clothes, manners, arts, and crafts are highly refined, but they are godless and spiritually empty. They content themselves with reliving the aged glories of their martial traditions and their mastery of sorcery and enchantment. Their achievements are admirable, but their culture no longer serves any vital purpose.

[Nords] are our ancient enemies. Like all man races, they are of inferior blood, but otherwise are human in every respect. Are they capable of enlightenment? Do they have souls? Who can say?

The Imperials are clever, industrious thieves and con men. Their legions are invincible, but individually they are weak and cowardly. Their civilization is a shabby imitation of High Elven culture, cheapened by the common greed and grasping nature of their merchants and monopolists. They have subjugated and enslaved the various peoples of Tamriel, and called this coerced submission 'peace.'

well I speak from personal experience which I'm still experiencing now

in my country Lebanon, we have 18 sects and 3 major religious groups, in essence we are one people, but the religious/political/sect/party leaders need us to perpetuate this "separatist" mentality so that we won't throw them in the bin and get people that actually have a clue in their place.

Its the same everywhere, I'm not talking about diversity which is good in its neutral form, I'm talking about how leaders in general try to reinforce the things that make people different and try to give these differences a demonic quality or a bad quality and this keeps them in power.

lets face it if people pick only the educated rational leaders we would have very few leaders indeed and this makes clergy/small time bosses and politicians shiver in their boots.

Through out the game, I do recall some types of slanders to races, but not too much. Just from some certain characters. Random things you might hear an NPC say as you walked past... /shrug.

The Dunmer's general attitudes to other races was rather extreme.

Dunmer dialogue from Morrowind:













So yeah, the Dunmer basically hated everyone. I think there was a lot less racism in Oblivion because Cyrodiil is a more cosmopolitan province and the center of the whole empire rather than an occupied nation.

While I would like more racism, your assessment that there is none in Oblivion is wrong, I even made a community quest for Oblivion where the subject was to kill 5 racists. You need to get to Leyawiin some more.

yah its really strange, if it was up to me I would declare the united federation of planets now, and redirect all funds to space exploration and human well being and prosperity

and @I am the walrus, believe it or not slavery is not so horrible compared to racism, because as a slave people used to be able to actually buy their freedom and do some social climbing (talking about Roman, Greek, Mesopotamian times of course, not the colonial barbarism which used savagery with slavery, since they did not even consider the humans they were enslaving human in the first place)

anyway slavery, racism, zealot-ism, are all a symbols of disrespect to the very essence of life, not only human but also all other forms of life, treating animals badly is also a form of slavery in my opinion, hell even the still nature around us should be treated with respect.

A Redguard actually looking for work? Amazing!

There's a reason I spent the next few days in prison because of that comment.

In real life, through history, people have been severely discriminated against and forced into slavery by other races. Racism is an undercurrent and problem in every society. However, in while in Morrowind there was Racism in the form of slavery, in Oblivion, there is non at all.

I mean, in real life, human beings have been discriminated against based on skin pigment and slight facial features differences. In TES, there are beastmen, cat people, lizard people, etc. In Oblivion, there seems to be no discrimination whatsoever against Argonians or Khajits. It doesn't seem to be very realistic or make much sense. You'd think imperials and such would be freaked out and disgusted by being around such creatures, like, for example, humans in the Warhammer 40k universe are disgusted by aliens, and shoot them on sight, instead of attempting to co-exist with them.

What do you think?

In real life, through history, people have been severely discriminated against and forced into slavery by other races. Racism is an undercurrent and problem in every society. However, in while in Morrowind there was Racism in the form of slavery, in Oblivion, there is non at all.

There's a reason I spent the next few days in prison because of that comment.

The Nords have traditionally had the most problems with Morrowind out of any other nation...but Morrowind went through a few changes between Oblivion and Skyrim. No spoilers but read The Infernal City. The only thing I'll say is that this caused a change between the attitudes of Dunmer and some tribes of Nords and that the racial hatred may not be as strong as it once was. I'm not sure who their big racial enemy is now. They've in the past varied between warring with Orcs and allying with them. Same with Redguards. The Nordic culture is quite old and established. They mostly have friendly relations with their neighbors, including the Bretons, whom they share cultural and blood heritage with.