Look, it isn't only in Animorphs. If you read/watch series/movies/books/whatever, how many times did you see an author who present a character as clearly racist (in a realistic way), or homophobic, but still "good", and who can change his mind after a while? Not so often, I guess. Bad people (enemies of the hero, for example) who are racist (like Senna's team in Everworld) is "normal", because the director/author make a parallel between being bad and being racist: a racist is somebody who would kill anybody if he could, something like that. And the heroes? If they're racist, it's only because the director/author is racist, and there is 2 solutions: 1- because of the period it was written, no one care; 2- it isn't shown in the movie/book, you simply can't see any black guy nor gay for example...
It's really rare to see authors/directors who really show one of their best character as racist/homophobic, because they think the public want to see total bad-ass or angels as characters. Black or white. But a "gray" character, being cool with some people, as long as they aren't (for example) Arab, would be unpolitical, and hardly appreciated by the public.
If you just read this thread, you have a good example. Many people think that saying that somebody is black and have a different skull/skin/hair is racist. It isn't! A lot of people don't see the difference. I already had this experience. And I remember an episode of South Park who talk about racism very well too (when they want to change the flag, because it shows a band of white people killing a black guy, and the children are accused to be racist... when, actually, they didn't even see the colors of the people on the flag). A lot of people accuse other people to be racist because they don't accept them. Example: A guy, Arab and a pure ass-hole (he speak very aloud, insult people in the bus, push people...), ask a cigarette to a white girl, and she refuses to give him any, even if she has. The guy will insult her and tell her she's racist, when it's clearly his manners/attitude who are wrong. <= This kind of things happens very often in France. Actually, the Arabs here who tell the white French are racist, are often way more racist ^^'
Anyway, directors/authors probably don't want to be accused to be racist because one of their character is racist. A lot of people think that an author will write what he thinks. But I think some also write exactly the contrary, to shock the audience and make them think. Does it work? I'm not sure ^^' (I think I remember a French comedian (a black guy, actually) who was accused to be racist in one of his sketch... but maybe people didn't understand what he meant. I'm not sure, I never heard the sketch and his explanations)
Even if KAA&MG wanted to have a racist character, I mean a racist who is against Blacks and Jews and gays..., do you think Scholastic would let it go? I think it would have been as for Tate in Remnants ^^' In Animorphs, the racism is shown only as against the Vecol and the other species (and most of the time by the Andalites, if not them by another species, not by the human), and only in MM3 as human... but it's in another parallel, where the Animorphs are pretty "bad". See? Bad people are racist but good people can't be ^^'
What I think: Not showing it won't make it disappear. It isn't because you say that everybody is cool and kind and tolerant that it's true. And it isn't because one of his/her characters is racism/homophobic that the author/director is too. But a lot of people are so stressed to be accused to be racist, that they prefer to say nothing at all, and are often ready to say that other people are racist.
PS: Well, sorry, my post is long and not very clear. ^^' If some people think I'm racist after reading it, I just don't care
I know I'm not, and it's the most important ^^
Oh, and if you didn't understand something, 'coz you know, I'm French and strange and so French and all that stuff lol, then ask ^^
