3/10/2023 0 Comments Summer islands noble houses asoiaf![]() ![]() I do think things analogous to racism and orientalism clearly exist in Westeros and Essos both - the Dothraki, for instance, think the Lhazareen are lesser to them, and white Westerosi clearly hate the Martells (and the Dornish in general). They wouldn't be called "white" and Missandei wouldn't be called "black" and Shae wouldn't be called "West Asian" because those categories don't exist in ASOIAF! We can't read our modern system of racialization and white supremacy into ASOIAF because 1) it's a fictional medieval fantasy world, 2) GRRM did not set up a consistent racial allegory in which there are groups that are neatly "white" and groups that are neatly "not white", and 3) categories such as "white", "Black", etc don't exist in ASOIAF. So we see even on the show that there are plenty of white/pale-skinned Essosi. Dany is just as Essosi as Missandei or Grey Worm or Melisandre or Varys. Jaqen H'ghar lives in Braavos, and he is white. Illyrio Mopatis lives in Pentos, and he is white. Valyrians are from Essos, and they are silver-haired, violet-eyed, and pale-skinned. Melisandre and Kinvara are from Asshai, and they're both white. The Dothraki and Ghiscari are described as brown-skinned/darker-skinned, but people from Lys are pale. Not only that, but there are thousands of different ethnic and national groups that inhabit these places. ![]() ![]() These places are all incredibly different from each other. Many different Essosi places are mentioned throughout ASOIAF - Braavos, Vaes Dothrak, the Dothraki Sea, Asshai, Lys, Myr, Volantis, the Free Cities, Astapor, Yunkai, and Meereen (which are all part of "Slaver's Bay"), Lothar, Naath, the Summer Isles, Qarth, Lhazar, Old Valyria, and more. We know from the complex and rich history of Essos that this isn't true. Second of all, there is often an orientalist assumption inherent in this faux-woke rhetoric that Essos, a huge continent, is this large, monolithic mass of brown and black people who apparently all have the same culture, nationality, religion, ethnicity, language, belief system, customs, and rituals. ![]()
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