Not a troll thread and I'm surprised this hasn't been discussed before. We all know the Fallout universe stayed HEAVILY influenced by the 1950's. The Red Scare was everlasting and American patriotism was always at an all time high. But there seems to be something missing, segregation. The 1950's was a very racial time. You'd think this would stick to some extent considering the heavy influence that 50's culture held over the Fallout universe. Would anyone happen to have any information regarding this?

I don't think there's been any mention of that aspect of pre-war society so far. Post-war society seemed to have replaced all of the racism against humans with racism against ghouls and other mutants. We're going to be seeing the pre-war world in Fallout 4 though, so im sure we'll get the answer in November.

Hopefully! This question has been itching at my mind for years. I mean it would make sense that racial attitudes would prevail over the years because of the influence of the 50's.

Just because themes are similar to the 1950s doesn't mean we have black vs white (which you clearly seem to want, because why else make the thread).

We can see racism against ghouls in FO3, although in FNV most people are fairly meh about it.

Perhaps in the impending doom, people moved past petty things and worried more about China?

Yeah, why bother with some silly racism based on skin color, when you got giant green men or the living flayed dropping various body-parts?

So much easier!

Especially the ghouls.

Super Mutants can be iffy, cos they tend to have a hands-on approach combined with giant hands, arms and everything. But great backs, lots to talk behind there.

If I recall there was a lot of stuff around rounding up Chinese citizens and putting them in camps in Point Lookout. A echo of what happened during WW2. America in the Falloutverse was absolutely a police state by the time the bombs fell, and there is at least evidence for chinese being discriminated against.

Pardon? I don't see how this could turn into "You are a racist for asking about racism." I'm a fan of lore and I was asking a question.

God almighty that would be a nightmare trying to explain why "real" racism needed to be in the game lol...so much jimmy rustling would ensue

Honestly, Fallout is a fictious "what if" scenario of a futuristic America based of "1950s utopian America" ideology. Yes, that means Jim Crow would be in full force, but that has never been a focus on Fallout to my knowledge. It takes aspects from the 1950s, but not everything. To be frank, with the pre-war element of the game being so brief, I'm not really sure what BGS would gain from tackling such a dark period of American history that many are still uncomfortable about. We will definitely see discrimination against ghouls, super mutants, and anyone who has been mutated by the affects of nuclear fallout. I can't see racism having any kind of place or impact on the game as that has never been a focus for BGS.

I feel like in the wasteland there are more important differences to worry about. Like whether someone is a super mutant, ghoul, or a human. Or whether a human is a raider, a slaver, or peaceful. So I don't think that those who decide to band together would worry about racial differences.

If anything, you might expect that there'd be racism against Asians. In any case, the game might be a reflection of the 1950s but 200 years have still passed. Attitudes change, especially when most of the people still alive are either mutated or want to kill you.

If anything racism actually makes the most sense in a post-apoc environment. Even if it was very much a part of the 50s and things today look much better, you can be sure that people and nations can fall back into old habits of segration and the idea of superiority. Not only between Ghouls and Humans but also between different groups. Like people with Asian look or black skin. People are sadly like that. They will always look for ways to dominate one group. And if you can explain it with superiority, it's even a justification for them.

Honestly i'm surprised I didn't run across any racist propaganda posters while exploring the wastes. You'd think they would have that at least.

There's plenty of anti-Chinese sentiment, although it's never front-and-center. I think once the government infrastructure perpetuating racism collapsed, and a general sense of survival took precedent, most survivors of the Great War really stopped giving a damn about race. Until Ghouls popped up; fantasy races are commonly used to explore concepts of racism "safely", for lack of a better word.

As for pre-war society, wasn't Tranquility Lane completely white? And what do we know about the suburb Fallout 4 starts in, other than our own character's race? I don't think Bethesda would go so far as to include segregation signage for water fountains and stuff, but they might have quietly presented us with a Pre-War society that casually ignores blatant racial inequality and then juxtaposed it with a wasteland that just doesn't care.

Fallout takes places 200 years after the Great War. Society has changed quite a lot given the time and situation.

Walking down the Jim Crow lane of memory isn't something I think will be included and it is surely not something we will discuss here on the forum as it's political in it's nature and not part of the games.

If you want to discuss racism in game feel free to talk about how ghouls are treated.