Intergalactic Summit

If you followed my first statement, which that was based off, you'd see I outlined our own sins very clearly.

Also, be careful what you label as free. Just because they have lives befitting a (lower) class society does not make them free. There are ideals one would label savage or barbaric within Matari are also considered their own nature. Vicious now, as by-product of inner-tribal warfare yet arguably mores because of the reclaiming.

Those ideals are removed within your society.

Furthermore, while some might be free, they spend their new lives observing their kin anything but free. The countless Matari who make up your slave population, that "serve" aboard your starships, all bring about a resounding fact that their race is anything but free.

As for the hope that things will change, imagine this: Will there ever be a Matari bishop? A Brutor able to hold the floor of the court of her highness with the respect of the court in his words?

Think about it.

You think there could ever be a Brutor heir?

It mostly depends if Brutors start to look more like Udorians, or Ealurians eventually.

COUGHMandateCOUGH.

I know that it's not a popular thing to remember, but there's actually a reasonable proportion of Minmatar in the Empire and associated bodies that are content where they are without being chained down. You think every freed slave automatically goes running back to the Republic?

All right, try this one on for size: if the Empire were to release all its slaves, and even a quarter of those released returned to the Republic, it would result in the Republic's total collapse. I've stated in the past that mass release of slaves would be crippling to the Empire as well, but honestly I think it would benefit more.

The Republic's resources are stretched anyway. Last I heard, they were still relying on aid from the Federation. A sudden population increase of a third (from just that one quarter, mind you) would cause total chaos. More than that, and the Republic simply would not cope. I could actually see a mass exodus back to the Empire, because hey, we might be second class citizens there, but at least we get food and a roof over our heads.

The economics and logistics just don't add up. Simple as that.

Before Shakor started funneling money and supplies intended for your people to fund his pet capital fleet?

Yes, we know. They're still finding little pieces of it on Mekhios to this day.

Amarrians.

Selective Perception for over 1000 years!

Loathe as I am to defend people like Starfire, it's a matter of record that the economy of the Republic has been doing better under Shakor than it had been for the past several decades.

There were people in the Federation arguing that all those Minmatar immigrants who came here would tank our economy, too, but the Federation economy did just fine. I could see an influx of newly freed slaves being good for their economy. Especially the highly skilled sorts of slaves that the Empire would be opposed most to losing.

Group-thinking Minmatar? Pilot, I believe you have us confused with a different group. I assure you that our opinions are as varied as any other society. Although we (mostly) speak and act as a unified people during times of national crisis, during normal times there's great difference of opinion between individuals, clans and Tribes.

Instead of living in a perpetual state of denial and victim blaming, I'd recommend actually investigating the allegations of discrimination rather than simply dismissing them out of hand. According to official census figures Matari make up a third of the Federation's population. That's a rather substantial segment of Gallentean society to treat so dismissively.

Even if Federal citizens such as yourself don't see any need for action I'm pretty certain that the politicians courting this huge block of voters will see things differently.

I think you're overworrying about this, Wolfhammer. Rella's right. A third of all Gallente identify as Minmatar. That doesn't mean that they're all sitting around fingering their khumaaks and dreaming of the Republic. They're Gallente. Most of them have been here for generations. Huge swaths of them came here immediately following their emancipation, and have no experience of the Republic at all. They're not "resources" for Shakor to "weaponize".

That's not to say that discrimination and ethnic violence doesn't occur. It does, and it has to be stamped out when it does. This is business as usual, the regular work of trying to make this multicultural stew that we call a Federation work. Discriminatory behavior and ethnic violence should be dealt with for what they are: retrograde behavior at best, criminal at worst.

If I were to pick one thing as the gravest sin of the Gallente - and I mean all of us in the Federation - it would have to be the sin of overreacting. People panic and lose their rationality when enough shocking things happen. If we don't guard against it, mob mentality takes over and our politicians (or those that we install when we, in our panic, vote them in) are too willing to follow the mob off the cliff of reason.