[stcredzero]

is it a race issue, or a class issue?

It's the unfortunate historical circumstance of race having become a fairly reliable marker for class. This is in turn a holdover from race having become a fairly reliable marker of slave status. I've come to think of many of the stickiest problems of the 21st century as holdovers from a past world that had the morality of Game of Thrones.

[dalore]

In Westeros slavery is outlawed but widespread in the East. Slavery is also a major topic in the book.