#in general i think this issue stems from using systemic oppression as a prop in a story centered around individual growth

[basket-of-radiants]

Coming from someone else who also gets irrationally angry at the entire series for this specific reason, good post op and good addition. Just to tack on to this and make a long post longer, I don’t think it’s wrong to write stories with aristocratic protagonists (it’s a good way to raise the stakes of any character choices) and I don’t think it’s wrong to include racism in a story (it’s a facet of human existence and is entirely deserving of a place in any narrative involving class and empire.) And honestly, I don’t really want or expect Sanderson to “solve” racism. Given how the Alethi society has been set up, I can’t really imagine any way racism could be solved within the books’ limited timeframe that wouldn’t feel cheap and inauthentic.

That all being said. Racism and its associated oppressive structures were the theme of the very first book in the series. You decide you want to read Stormlight Archive, so you open Way of Kings, and you get a book about a man enduring the hardships of slavery interspersed with flashbacks of how a lighteyes had abused his power over his family when he was younger. You get explicit discussions of how an entire racial caste is being used as grist in a war machine that serves nothing but the vanities of its betters. These things are front and center, not to mention intrinsically tied to Kaladin’s story of what it means to be an honorable person in a society like this. Maybe the answer to that question was always meant to be “the honorable and righteous thing to do is turn the other cheek and rise above it” but even if I’m supposed to accept that as a satisfactory resolution to Kaladin’s arc (which I don’t), I think I could still be forgiven for having assumed the larger themes of racism would continue to play a part in the narrative. 

It’s like you said in the original posts, if the narrative fully acknowledged Kaladin’s contradictions, this could be fine. Having higher status and greater power genuinely can change a person’s values pretty severely, not to mention the Kholins have been kind of grooming him to essentially become one of them. It’s not unreasonable for a character in that position to start empathizing less with other darkeyes and more with other lighteyes. In any caste-based society, your rank is not just determined by how high you personally rise, but also by how many people are categorically beneath you. In this kind of system, is anyone who rises through the ranks inherently a class traitor? What kinds of systemic power does Kaladin have to help other darkeyes? Why isn’t he using that power? What are his limitations there? Solving all of racism isn’t his responsibility either, but this is a character who broke down in tears the first time he was asked to accept he couldn’t save everyone. This stuff should at least weigh on him.

Unfortunately Kaladin’s assimilation in the upper class can never truly be an indictment of him as a person, or a flaw he gets to grapple with, because every other major protagonist is a lighteyes, and if we say it’s bad that Kaladin is becoming more like them, then we have to say that they’re also bad. So we get a Kaladin who criticizes Dalinar and then does everything he says anyway. A Kaladin who sympathizes with the plight of the singers but who still kills them just the same. Or as a much clearer and easier to see example, a Kaladin who makes an effort to understand and relate to Adolin and Shallan, even though they never make the same effort to understand him. Seriously, love to Adolin and Shallan, but even when they’re being supportive friends it’s always “how can we make Kaladin less sad” or “man, Amaram is the worst” and never “wow I had no idea your experiences of racism were so bad, I’m so sorry for having added to them.” Sure, everyone else gets to have the character development of learning to accept a darkeyes as an equal, but ultimately Kaladin always has to be the one to change.

It’s sort of doubly frustrating how so many of Kaladin’s original problems from Way of Kings have just been handwaved away by other characters with no involvement from Kaladin himself. Sadeas is horrible to his slaves? That’s okay, Adolin killed him, he’s gone. The Alethi are protecting Amaram? Well Amaram defected so it’s fine, no one cares if he’s dead now. Roshone? It’s cool, he’s undergone some character development offscreen, so honestly you’d have to be super evil to still hold a grudge at this point. The institutions of princedoms governing this country are awful and abusive? Fortunately the Kholins are all really into honor and self-improvement right now, and they’re such trendsetters that the other highprinces just can’t help but join in as well! Slavery? Jasnah fixed that. Turns out all anyone needed to do was wait for a nicer monarch to take power, no need for him to have gotten uppity, someone was going to get around to ending slavery eventually. And even that doesn’t have to have any consequences, you’d think as in the original post, that there would be a massive labor shortage, but that has literally been magically solved because now you have a bunch of magical knights and magical food and magical gates that fix any logistical issues, which is all to say that the topic of slavery gets to be neatly swept under the rug and it doesn’t have to reflect on any of our characters anymore.

It’s not even that Kaladin doesn’t care about any of these problems you mentioned in the original post. It’s that a lot of these problems have been hurriedly resolved so that Kaladin doesn’t have to care.

As I said before, I really don’t need Sanderson or Kaladin or any other character to solve racism. And honestly, I’d prefer they didn’t, because it’s pretty frustrating to see everyone treating it as if it’s just not a big deal anymore.

I love kaladin but i fucking HAAATE kaladin. As soon as kaladin became upperclass, class struggle no longer mattered to him. You just dont hear about slaves anymore, you dont hear about darkeyes. You would think with the parshmen gone, and the world in turmoil, darkeyed enslavement would be out of control, but we wouldnt fucking know because kaladin doesnt fucking care. Kaladin doesnt care that dalinar has slaves, he doesnt care if he works under a corrupt monarchy, he does as hes told and turns a blind eye, despite being powerful enough now to make change. He contradicts his own morals and it makes me so angry that it almost feels inexcusable to me