comment on theme

While the kingdom of Otera is a fantastical one that exists separately from our world, skin color is still a social marker that sets people apart, which works to argue that racism is an artificial construct of society rather than an inherit order of nature. While most fantasy novels present a world in which those with dark skin are powerless and oppressed, as in our real world, The Gilded Ones reverses the structure of power in order to demonstrate how absurd and nonsensical racist thinking truly is.