City Of Bones-Equality

I am currently reading City of Bones by Cassandra Clare. The book is set in our world, but living among us are Demons, Downworlders and Shadowhunters. Demons are creatures of pure evil. Downworlders (Warlocks, Vampires, Werewolves and Fairies) are part Demon and part human. Shadowhunters are humans with a small amount of angel blood who are charged with protecting the earth from Demons. In the book, one of the big issues is about equality. Some Shadowhunters believe they are better then Downworlders.

The antagonist of the story, Valentine, believes that Shadowhunters are the superior race and all Downworlders should be eliminated. This really brings up the question, can one race really be better then another? The Shadow hunters believe that because they have the blood of angels they are better then half-breed Downworlders. They don’t see that they themselves are half-breeds; they have just been around longer. What gives them the right to say that Shadowhunters are better then the Downworlders? What gives Valentine the right to decide who is aloud to live on this earth? No one has that power.

One of Valentines core beliefs was that by fraternizing with Downworlders, Shadowhunters are tainting their race. He believes in the purity of the Shadowhunters. This particular belief reminds me of racism in the south. Many white people believed that mixing with African Americans tainted the purity of the white race. Some people said that if the two races had children together it would lead to the “mongrelization” of the white race. They believed that African Americans are somehow born as less then whites.

            Whenever one race considers themselves superior to another, death and destruction almost always follow. This is because we shouldn’t be classifying people based on what they are but on who they are. All people are born equal. In this book and the world people need to learn this.