@Background Pony Number 17
Not surprising when you consider Dragons have had an anti pony stance for a while (even being open to the idea of invading the pony regions of Equestria), Griffons of mythology ate horses, The Changlings’ reformation is a recent event following two almost successful invasion attempts, And Yaks are not the best house guests even threatening war if you upset them. Can you really blame a pony for being so distrustful?

@Background Pony #6D48
Sure. His character is being handled pretty poorly though - they could’ve listed some reasons for his racist rant at least, rather than just dropping it as a straw man. They could have easily said that he feared another Changeling invasion, or just didn’t like the chaos that Yaks bring. Those are problems that can be solved through conversations, understanding, and friendship.

Everyone wants to throw this guy under the bus as a racist for being ethnocentric, but nobody calls out the Yaks for thinking that their culture is better than anyone else’s. I don’t see the Yaks reaching out to Griffons or Hippogriffs, either.

Heck, if Twilight Sparkle had just started the school for ponies first, then the whole ‘we almost started a war’ plot could have been completely avoided, and the curriculum issues could have been solved before the lives of everyone in Equestria was put in the balance.

Chancellor Neighsay does have a couple good arguments he could use in his back pocket. However, no one wants to even consider hearing out a ‘racist,’ so those points are moot. It’s…just such a ham-fisted waste of a character.

@Background Pony #B214
Usually when people assume positions of power to spread hatred and xenophobia, they don’t join committees. Just look at Pol Pot.

Committees are passive agressive, perform no direct action on their opponents, and at the end of the day, they aren’t effective if your objective is to spread hate. Rather, when you are on a committee, it is a prestigious position, and your main goal is to maintain that prestige (so you feel good about yourself, and so that whatever ‘institution’ you serve continues to exist). This is why college professors never preach against themselves, offering free accredited classes to random people - no matter how much they want to appear ‘woke,’ they are unwilling to ‘woke’ themselves out of a job. Even if you could propose the argument that Universities are white, colonizing institutions entirely focused on making more white-minded people (like the professors), they would probably nod, agree with you, and then ignore that actions should follow if your argument is true.

Neighsay is a guy in a prestigious committee tasked with furthering the education of ponies. If any other culture offered superior schooling to the existing pony structures, then there would have been foreign exchange students of the pony variety that would have attended foreign schools. Since that had not occurred, for whatever reason (perhaps the Griffons were xenophobic, too?), Neighsay is perfectly, logically, rationally reaching a conclusion.

Or he would have, if the writers didn’t just want a strawman to label and attack…..

World building is hard. Giving legitimate reasons for peoples’ positions is challenging. Attacking root causes takes time and effort. Nobody wants to do that - they just want their 5 minutes of hate.

You are no different.

@Ravemastaj

The idea is to teach them that hate and/or racism is wrong.

Even then, Twilight doesn’t express hatred toward Neighsay. She expresses disgust at his ideals. And I think that’s an important difference.

You can hate racism while still pitying the racist, and hoping they see the light and abandon their prejudices. Maybe Neighsay will eventually.

@Zendigo
Yeah. That’s just part of my point - he’s designed as a character you are supposed to hate, and that’s just…poor writing. If you are supposed to hate a character, then it should be after a revelation, and after reformation is refused. Just making the guy outspoken and oblivious to what he’s saying is just…a waste. He’s part of the Equestrian Education Authority, he should know the history of the EUP Alliance, and he should be able to talk to Twilight Sparkle in a civilized and nuanced manner, with an understanding of what she is trying to accomplish - even if he has reservations against it. Instead, they made him into an old racist that doesn’t have any real/valid opinions or fears.

but nobody calls out the Yaks for thinking that their culture is better than anyone else’s.