Race and Animorphs

[Homiegee]

When the Animorphs started out, they weren't a group. Jake and Marco were best friends, Rachel and Cassie were best friends, Jake thought he had a crush on Cassie, Tobias was the loser, and through chance and circumstance they just happened to be all walking home together from the mall when Elfangor's ship landed at the construction site.

As it turns out, what race the characters are seems to be as random as them happening to become the Animorphs.

Think about it. The characters' race is mentioned briefly in the first one or two books when they're being described, and that's about it. MM3 is the only other book I recall race being mentioned, and its mentioning kind of shocked me just because KA never mentioned it otherwise. (I think David also jokes that Tobias is a "bird racist" in one of the books, but since it's birds and not people that doesn't really count.)

In fact, the only way you know what race the Animorphs are after the first few books is by looking at the models on the cover.

If K.A. was trying to make a statement at all as to race in the Animorphs, it would probably be that race really didn't matter to them, because they were working together to fight against the Yeerks for the freedom of the human race as a whole. They didn't care who was this color or that, who was disadvantaged and who wasn't, they were trying to accomplish something. That's a lesson from a kids book that a lot of adults could learn.

[Darth Revan]

Yeah, I also thought it funny that the only actual WASP (White Anglo-Saxon Protestant) was the loner and loser of the group.

[Chad32]

There's a trope called the token white guy that I think Tobias might fit in.

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/TokenWhite

[voodooqueen126]

not that Cassie prays (sorry i suffer from not writing down my thought properly) I meant to say:
In book 12 (the horse one) Cassie's parents send her to 'father banion' or are worried about her spending time with jake and so they are thinking about sending her to father Banion. Which indicates that Cassie's family is catholic, as I said earlier it is statistically more likely that Cassie is Baptist or Pentecostal (according to Demographics), now it is more likely that the authors didn't do the research,  but that her family is catholic might indicate that they came  from Louisiana before the civil war. this is not fact but a possible aid for fanfiction writers when looking for a 'cassie surname' ie just go for a surname from that area.
shall return to the other points after dinner.

[Tim Bruening]

I thought it was a little weird that there weren't any Asian kids in the group, but on the other hand I feel like it would have been a forced multi-culti band of people and that would have just made it weird and forced more stereotypes on the group.

It was pretty stereotypical, but I thought it was cool that they went out of their way to include people.

In the beginning I thought it was stupid how Marco's family was the only one whose mother had left them, but then we later learn why. [spoiler](But then, I wonder if making Marco's mom Visser Uno was used to cover up the fact that she had left? It's a pretty big stereotype that Latino families usually have one parent.)[/spoiler]

Balanced by Rachel's Dad leaving!

Guys, guys, guys... Jake and most of the others are clearly quite racist... Don't you remember the beginning of MM3??? It's like, how can you miss something like that... Even Cassie owns slaves!  Duh!

I think it's obvious that this blatant political incorrectness is proof positive of KA's radical right wing upbringing and political views, and this series is designed to teach young teens that people of different races are inferior...

Atrocious...

The beginning of MM3 was set in an alternate universe created by Visser 4 with the Time Matrix.  Jake et al had been contaminated by their altered culture.