Racial Stereotypes: Origin and Accuracy

It's not so much delight as paternal sadism.

On Salarians and their heightened intelligences (or perception thereof).

I believe that this stereotype comes about because very few of us are slow. A Salarian can usually keep up with you as fast as you can talk. And then talk back at you twice as fast as you can. But don't assume that just because he can process what your saying quickly means that he understands anything about it. Some of us can be just as thick as any other species. The processor is running at twice the clockspeed, but whether useful data is coming out the pipe at the other end is a mystery.

It doesn't help the the dumb ones can hide it (at least to other species) by overloading someone with nonsense, and/or just talking faster than they can keep up.

Speaking of stereotypes, any asari in the crowd who'd like to talk about the appalling way we characterize so-called Purebloods?

No? Well that's too bad.

My 'father' was asari. And like other asari born under similar circumstances I've had to live with the knowledge that the fact of my parentage has the potential to sour every interaction I have with a member of my own race. I've let it sabotage personal relationships, it's been used to hinder me in my profession. Worse still, I've seen it used as part of a system that is born from and reinforces a cultural fear of pure blooded asari, one that drives otherwise good asari into the fringes and doesn't even recognize the loss.

So, for the record:

Asari born from the union of two asari are more inclined to certain genetic disorders, the tests for which are generally applied as part of the standard suite of tests performed on asari children entering the education system. The results of these tests are a definitive record of the asari's genetic profile, and requiring the asari to re-take them either as part of a 'random test' or in response to the 'concerns' of an anonymous faculty member is a systematic abuse of power that should be confronted everywhere it's encountered.

They are not pre-inclined to be attracted to asari; asari are pre-inclined to be attracted to asari, it's how we got anywhere as a species. Nor are they any more or less inclined to peruse relationships with asari for any other reason.

They do not exhibit atypical biotic behavior or physical discrepancies beyond those that suffer certain disorders that make up a minority of their population. Whether or not they suffer from these disorders, they are not more or less 'evolved' than other asari, they do not represent some sort of 'genetic destiny' or any other term that falls under the umbrella of bullshit pseudoscience that is genetic predeterminism. [The Science of Deadly Attraction] is the single most dangerously wrong-headed piece of 'literature' on the subject that I've ever had the displeasure of reading.

It's interesting how this thread is working. Despite the invitation to write about other species, each poster sticks to theirs. It's been an interesting read though and I hope there's going to be some more. I admit, I also felt tempted to start with my own kind. Mekan, you set the example there, I guess.

But well, I try and break it and write about salarians. Zeeele has given me a start there.
What about 'Salarians are all sneaky'?

As many other stereotypes in this thread have proven, there is grain of truth in this one as well. Salarians have mastered the world of secrecy and covert operations. But of course, like Zeele pointed out, not 'all' are the same really.

A salarian is indeed capable of processing data faster than any other species. I would not use the word 'overclocked' though since it means, something is running beyond its spec capacity. The salarian mind is exactly supposed to work that much faster. If you as species have much less time to evolve from one generation to another and still are capable to stay on the front of science, you have to process at least the same amount of data in at least the same quality in half or a third of the time.

Being able to follow your surrounds, taking up all kinds of input in parallel (or it may just seem so but it's just a faster sequence really) and then connect the dots correcty to take action before anyone else is realizing makes you look dubious, suspicious of knowing 'more' all the time. But they are not, and not even necessarily on purpose, it's just how they are supposed to work. Salarians are just more effective at connecting data and draw conclusions so covert ops and observation and then acting on it makes it appear like sneaky magic because the average longe-lifer can't keep up.
After over two millennia and countless more generations that any other species, they have grown into this and it has become ingrained in their society. Nature at work I guess.

Mind you, and again, Zeele is right, the salarians do not make fewer mistakes but they are also just more capable of covering their tracks about it.

So I would not say the typical salarian is more sneaky than any other species. He is just too fast to not look like it to most others (and some of them know it and use it very well to their advantage). But, then, well, I have met really thick salarians as well.

I'm not typically inclined to say this but fuck you, Hard Drop. Everyone at the Sniper's Touch does not maintain identical politicical beliefs. I would be willing to say the majority are not anti-Hierarchy but post-Hierarchy, which boils down to: We survived the fucking Reapers, can't we put that shit behind us?

Juhani and his daughter spent the war in our hall. Given what happened to the other neighbourhoods around here it's not that surprising a choice.

Personally, I would rather draw my political battle lines against the people who think that money, "status" and accidents of birth are the indicators of a person's worth--it's not as though some points in the Lower Wards weren't of equal strategic significance, funny how all the military defence centered around the Presidium's infrastructure--but some people are still obsessed over facepaint.

No wonder everyone thinks we have sticks up our arses.

You think I care about this shit? Look, the Hierarchy ain't a mandate, you know? If you don't put in, you go nowhere but nobody's fuckin' forced to be Captain Perfect Turian. I ain't got a problem with people just deciding they don't want a part of the Hierarchy.

And yeah, you're fuckin' right. Arguing about this shit after the Reapers is totally fuckin' pointless, and it ain't worth it.

But I do got a problem with people whose methods of disagreement involving blowing up a bunch of non-coms.

And I got a problem with piece of shit humans thinking just cause they chose the Hierarchy over their own people that they got the right to tell us how to run our outfit, you get me?


Look hon, this is all getting a bit over my head so lemme just say one thing. A person's worth is in what they do. Nothing else.

So to me, being an asshole is a pretty good indication of a guy's worth.

This is exactly the attitude I face and it's detrimental. I have cultivated a relationship with amiable separatists on the Citadel, these contacts could be used for bettering Hierarchy-North Solregit relations but instead I'm told get back in line and stop pretending it's the Citadel Council!

If the upper echelons want to waste perfectly good assets I happen to have at my hands, then so be it. Don't expect any extra effort from me in the future, you've shown that it's punishable act for daring to stand tall.

Hey, you people kind of reenact the stereotype 'hierarchy ans seppers can never get along'

I've been thinking about two credits for the common cause here....

Stereotype ‘asari are governed by the Matriarchs on Thessia’.

Matriarchs are generally approached and treated with a lot of respect, for many reasons. Some definitely know answers to questions I don't even know to ask yet.

Matriarchs are often powerful by the fact alone that they had centuries to gather experience. It gives them an edge in many ways and it has been beneficial for most Maidens to at least listen to a Matriarch.

But contrary to what some (asari) might believe, of course Matriarchs are not infallible. And contrary to what a lot of (non-asari) might believe: asari (most of the time) know that.

The network of Matriarchs on Thessia was dense and immense (note the past tense). It is the planet everyone looks to, it’s the guiding beacon (well…) for most cultural developments. That gives the Thessian Matriarchs great influence as they of course drive such developments more than anyone else. The closer their networking becomes, the more influential it gets.

Base democracy in small units, like the individual republics and colonies is very diverse and brings forth more alternative solutions to the same issues. It is supposed to be a positive competition among the administrative units. Now, a network of those who have the most pull in such units is a good thing if it doesn’t get out of control. From time to time, the machine need readjustment to not start a life on it’s own. The individual maiden or matron is challenged to not let things go their ways all the time and stop asking questions and strife for consensus.
In fact, these discussions are another stereotype...

We have just witnessed the probably largest of such events, breaking up an immensely powerful inner circle around the Beacon Matriarchs. It placed a renewed suspiciousness in most asari. For the system to work we need critical media, we need free speech, we need diversity and the free competition of ideas. One development currently visible is a shift of social weight towards the colonial republics. Simply on the grounds that Thessia is lacking much of its former Matriarchal networks and a lot of the colonies are much more intact in a social way.

Anyway, the stereotype about the Matriarchal monarchy is only partially true. A Matriarch can only be as powerful as the public lets her be. Having immense secrets and knowledge they won't share for their own benefit are shortsighted and hurts the system. We have just witnessed that. We need Matriarchs willing to share and a public asking questions.

Each Matriarch has something to contribute, so it’s stupid not to listen. I know great Matriarchs who I would trust to the end and back. It does not however relief me of the responsibility to think and judge for myself.

I won't dispute that it's a survival strategy, but do you really think it's as cold as you make it sound? It's only a 'weapon' in that it's a means of guarding against threats to our survival, but so is a parent's instinctive love for her child, or the instinct to rally to the defence of those we consider tribe - they're proven biologically evolved factors that favour the survival of the next generation (and through them, and other advantages, we've 'prevailed' where other species haven't), but that doesn't mean they're not admirable, or shouldn't be cherished and celebrated. Similarly, our behaviour bringing about 'everyone loves the asari' - it happens because the reverse is true, the asari love everyone. I really don't believe that, as an entire species, our sexual behaviour can be characterised as so calculating and ruthless that that's not the case, that the affection we receive from the rest of the galaxy isn't in response to affection we give. Everyone's got their means of strengthening themselves, their position, against potential threats - if one of ours is to love and receive love in return, that's really not so bad.

It may be a discussion for another time, but I'd argue against 'obsessed' as a description though (even personally, I'd pick 'devoted' as a better adjective, but I don't mean about me specifically). Perhaps some are, but taking the asari species as a whole, and what passed for our 'average' interest in sex... it's not worth that? This fantastic experience, endlessly vital and changing and varied, surely the rewards are great enough that it's worth taking a special interest in. Not to the exclusion of all else, of course, but really, it's got to merit a place pretty high up on the list of enriching experiences.

Besides, if we all were, how would I ever have the rarity value to command the prices I do? Just as well really.

Better to say don't forget the purple ones; they seem to barely ever get mentioned compared to us blues.

Most of the old women are dead; I doubt those that survived did so in such isolation that they haven't taken that lesson to heart. And yes, there was deception and hypocrisy - does that invalidate our 'way', though? We told others, and ourselves, that we were better than we turned out to be; would we be better [i]now[/]i to abandon that dream, or try harder to actually live up to it?

I would; I think it's very cruel, the way we treat these women. You see it a lot on Illium - words like that are used openly in a way they never would be in the Republics, and the ugliness of that sort of prejudice is very plain - but I don't believe the silence on the homeworlds is more admirable, really.

This is a serious post.

Humans are whiny, impatient little babies that love to boast and steal credit from everyone. Yeah, I know what you're thinking. Quarians are the whiny ones and you are right about that (though they are far more justified in being able to whine than humans are) but being a whiner is just as part of the human stereotype as it is them. And it comes from... well, literally every interaction your people have with any other species.

You whined about the big bad turians attacking you on shanxi for no reason, despite the fact that you idiots (there's another stereotype: Idiot) took to turning on literally every Mass Relay you found. Where any normal and rational species would probably think would be a terrible idea since you could open a link to a potentially hostile species like the rachni or yahg (there's another stereotype: RECKLESS) and then you had to treat it like some kind of serious shit (First Contact War? LOL) and get uppity whenever people rightfully refer to it as just a minor incident and conflict.

You whined and threw bitchy little tantrums about being mistreated for being the 'new guys' every single time 'you' didn't get your way with whatever stupid demands you were making of the Council.

When the Reapers attacked, all you heard about was "URTH EARF EARTH" like, seriously, if the Reapers hadn't decided to drag the Citadel to ARF we probably would have had you idiots dragging the entire fleets into Sol to get massacred because you idiots would have probably thought the Crucible and your home planet needed to be fused together into some kind of horrible thing that would turn the Reapers into giant honking humans.

Also you smell bad.

Krogan have the stereotype of being bloodthirsty thugs. Because... Almost all of them are bloodthirsty thugs and the perfect example of why you don't run around uplifting species that aren't ready for it. Especially a species dumb enough to nuke itself into a literal stone age holy shit.

Also you smell really bad.

Well if it ain't a sorry thread of insults here.

That's what you get for not having decent hygienic facilities for better part of millennium, pyjak and we wouldn't even by accident want puny frail creatures like you up close so that serves as defense mechanism too.

Man, I am pretty sure there are some basic substances on your planet that can make soap. Soap that will probably melt the skin off anything not a krogan. BUT SOAP

Look, let me be a little ray of fucking sunshine and say I've met people working for the Hierarchy who aren't colony-ist, freedom-hating, butt-kissing bullies ganging up into the biggest pack they can make to compensate for their lack of backbone and individual thought.

A) Fuck you
B) I don't know why the bad-smelling stereotype exists, because it's NOT TRUE. My god, it's the thing everyone associates with krogan, and it has no basis in reality. We don't smell GOOD, mind you, but we do bathe. We have fucking soap! You know who smells bad? Humans, like you said. All their hair, and their sweat, and whenever they get nervous they sweat even MORE. They're walking garbage cans.
C) No argument on the bloodthirsty savage. It's really a plus - none of those uppity novaheads on Omega have tried to rob me for a credit chit. Yet.

Can we focus on actual debate instead of shit-flinging, people? Thanks.

Also, I know I'm guilty of setting a bad example, but let's try and look at alien stereotypes intelligently. Name some stereotypes you've heard about races other than your own, and then analyze it, for fucks' sake.


Not unexpected from upper-caste shitholes like yourself, I suppose.

The stereotype of the 'carefree' maiden is something that the matriarchs seemed to have encouraged, it allowed them to play their games, allowing the asari to believe that our E-Democracy actually means anything. But if you happen to be a maiden who has any real ambition, or a inclination towards a serious career without any of the usual carousing, that places an maiden under suspicion in the eyes of the old women on Thessia and Illium. Last thing the old crones want is some uppity youngster telling them to actually justify their decisions. Best way to prevent that is to feed the stereotype of the hedonistic, aimless culture of the maiden stage. It keeps us distracted from what really matters, gives the matriarchs free rein and ultimately ensures things stay as they are.

As for this so called 'dream' that Daia T'Nara espouses, it's based on a fucking lie, a lie that nearly ensured Thessia's destruction and did nothing to advance our interests. The matriarchs proved themselves unfit to lead for one simple reason, being unable to make a fucking decision. So does the stereotypes of asari indecision, maiden degeneracy, and cultural manipulation have some truth, absolutely. But it doesn't have to be this way, it starts with us maidens unwilling to settle with stripping and merc jobs, and holding the matriarchs feet to the fire.

Oh I like you.


Oh I like you a lot.


Well... yes. Yes I do. Our society has kept the stereotype alive far longer than it has any right to live. It's not admirable to practically force everyone to like us. To manipulate galactic perception like bloody sociopaths so that we appear as likable as possible. And yes, it can be characterized as calculating and ruthless very easily in light of all the things our race has done. Rachni War krogan uplifting Genophage Thessian beacon just to name a few key words.


We appear to have rather different definitions of love. And conceptions of what sex means, it seems. What you are talking about is lust, or desire. You're trying to tell me that the act of sex itself, free of context, is inherently good and 'enriching'. This shit would not even remotely fly if it wasn't for the whole melding thing, but that aside, no. Sex is not love. Sex is meant to be an extension of love. Sex is a meaningless carnal act that gets your rocks off and passes on your genetic material. But if you add a loving relationship, a real loving relationship, it actually starts to mean more.


Ha ha. Case in point.


Uh... yes. Yes it does. A lot. The entire basis of our 'way' was a lie. If that isn't grounds for invalidation I don't know what is.

And on the subject of purebloods, I don't know how the fuck that became A Thing considering all the 'purebloods' that must have been necessary pre-spaceflight but the actual basis of the matter is the ardat-yakshi spectrum. The relevant gene can only manifest itself in a 'pureblood', and extra generations of 'purebloods' make it more and more likely. But, you know, we consciously choose if we want to get pregnant or not so I don't know what the hell the deal is.

Oh my oh my oh my. How did I miss this little gem. God Bless your four-eyed soul Mekan you've given me a solid couple hours of entertainment here.

Well a primary stereotype regarding humans that's already been addressed in this thread is that we are inclined to espouse an "act now and consequences be damned" attitude. Which is, in a lot of ways, somewhat fair. The expansion into the Traverse and Verge by the Systems Alliance was more or less the definition of biting off more than you can chew. The perceived root of this behavior is arrogance but, speaking as a not entirely unknowledgeable human, I'd be more inclined to say that this stems from ambition. At least in the sense of being tied to social dominance and success in a manner that's most analogous to (funnily enough) facets of batarian thinking. It would explain, in my opinion anyway, why we clashed so early and so bloodily: we occupied a similar socio-political niche.

And now, in the interest of catharsis.

That's because you're a functionally retarded bird that lives in garbage.

I mean,

just in the interests of clarification.

In all seriousness you simply cannot quantify a culture and a people as a whole into a category like "good" or "bad" on the basis of "how it makes you feel inside". Well, allow me to rephrase, you can but it is a stupid, stupid thing to do. Frankly? I can see what Mekan's talking about, I've worked with a great number of batarians, some as colleagues, some as commanders, some as employees, some as friends, and there very much is a tendency (in my opinion at least) for their approach to combat and conflict to be almost...gladiatorial. There's as much show as substance there and the show is substance in and of itself.

As Mekan said, it's largely about establishing superiority over your enemy, both personally and tactically.

And just like that, I already like you.

Welcome to the Club

We've got shirts



Have you considered that, possibly your superiors, rather than being so weighed down by ignorance and petty bias as to not recognize your clear value as an ambassador, simply don't care? I mean granted there is a chance, infinitesimally minute that it is, that you are in fact God's gift to diplomatic relations and tragically underutilized; but I think Occam's Razor dictates that the Hierarchy feels they have the situation well enough in hand to not justify using a client with a decidedly unfortunate propensity for jumping ship as an intermediary.

Have you considered that, possibly, rather than being the protagonist of a Victor Hugo novel you're actually just a self absorbed prat?

...well then. Honestly I would make the argument that the core issue is less "Matriarch cabals" or even "ineffective attempts at holding said individuals to any standard approaching accountability" and more "a near pathological fear of rocking the boat". The masses aren't always right.

Really, a great deal of the time they can be as far from right as logically and geographically possible.

Frankly, again I- Oh goddammit. Well I, for one, have been feeling a distinct lack of affection from several asari on this board in recent days.

I must say, it's rather hurtful.

Many say vorcha not people. Not true. Vorcha more people than most. Person think and fight and move. Rock not move. Rock not person. Change only slowly. All life people. Change quickly. Change where need to, change where want to. All life strive, and fight. Other races, become like rock. Not fight. Make walls, make laws and codes, go back to small-life, sometimes not-life. Vorcha more people. Vorcha more people than you.

A) NO FUCK YOU!!!
B) So what kind of nasty bilge water are you dudes bathing in? What color is it? Because I'll be damned if I haven't met a krogan that didn't smell like some kind of musty, old building with a bit of rotten fruit for flavor.

Humans sweating is gross as hell though. I'll give you that

C.) Yeah, you can't really argue about something that is such a know fact can't you~