Is Vegeta a racist/saiyan supremacist?

[nickzambuto]

I see a lot of talk about Freeza being racist but he seems to just hate everyone and doesn’t have a preference for his own species. Vegeta actually fits the bill more. He seems to look at saiyans like the aryan race and every other race of beings is inferior in his eyes.

[Aim]

Not really anymore.

[Lionel]

I think Vegeta certainly has some preconceived notions about the dominance of the Saiyan species. You can deduce it in some of the quotes he makes throughout Dragon Ball.

Spoiler:

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Disregard for the strength and efforts of his opponents in relation to his self-imposed competition with Goku like they're merely another stumbling block, scorn for anyone that challenges his notions of Saiyan mastery, trivialising practices or lifestyles while believing his own to be so much more worthwhile...

It's one of the reasons why I don't particularly care for Vegeta as he himself relies on one of the most lurid gimmicks to power himself up in the entire series. I wish others would show more initiative in challenging his arrogance by improving themselves enough to challenge him. Piccolo attempted to do so at first in the Namek and early Android arcs but he quickly fell to the wayside and never tried to get ahead again. Unfortunately, Toriyama seems content to reinforce rather than refute Vegeta's mentality. Well, for the most part.

[Mad Swami]

Was he? Yes.

Is he? No.

Vegeta absolutely used to be but now can respect other races.

[Melee_Sovereign]

The thing is "races" in Dragon Ball generally aren't really races. They're species. And its not really seen as taboo to recognize any degree of superiority across species. Me recognizing that humans in real life are far more intelligent than every other species on Earth, doesn't make me a human supremacist. Its just me recognizing an undeniable fact about reality. Saiyans are also undeniably physically more powerful than humans.

Frieza isn't a supremacist, as far as I can tell. What he is is a bigot. He just hates Saiyans as a people. You probably can't call him a racist in the strictest sense (because again, we're talking about different species, not races), but he's still a bigot, and that's a negative quality no matter how you slices it. Vegeta doesn't single out any particular species and hates them for it. He just has pride in his own species's abilities and qualities.

[Lionel]

The thing is "races" in Dragon Ball generally aren't really races. They're species. And its not really seen as taboo to recognize any degree of superiority across species. Me recognizing that humans in real life are far more intelligent than every other species on Earth, doesn't make me a human supremacist. Its just me recognizing an undeniable fact about reality. Saiyans are also undeniably physically more powerful than humans.

Frieza isn't a supremacist, as far as I can tell. What he is is a bigot. He just hates Saiyans as a people. You probably can't call him a racist in the strictest sense (because again, we're talking about different species, not races), but he's still a bigot, and that's a negative quality no matter how you slices it. Vegeta doesn't single out any particular species and hates them for it. He just has pride in his own species's abilities and qualities.

Valid points. Saiyans are an inherently stronger race, that goes without saying. I think what might put Vegeta in a jaundiced light is his idea that Saiyans are expected to be at the top of the food chain. His internal reaction towards Piccolo after learning of the Namekian having surpassed him says something about the notion. Another example is when Vegeta denounces Moro for not using "his own strength". Wait... Isn't Vegeta the same person who is constantly harping on about the endless potential of the Saiyans? The man seems to always have some transformation up his sleeve that amplifies his power multifold. How is anyone else supposed to beat him at his own game when he's being declared as having the deepest wellspring of strength of any species out there? It's a self-defeating argument, if you ask me.

Plus, it's not like anyone is able to use the resources he and Goku have had made available to them after King Kai with the exception of Piccolo's one day in the ROSAT.

[coola]

He was also obsessed with full blood, he called Gohan "filthy halfblood" at least few times. It is actually interesting, why Vegeta grew up to be like this, with real life monarch, you can argue they were all raise that way, beliving themselves to be above "peasants" but since Vegeta was little kid, he saw his own father being mocked by Beerus, Freeza, Vegeta himself, before Namek, was equal to Cui, and much weaker than Dodoria and Zarbon. Then again, it is like that in real life too, some people know they are pretty weak, so they bully those, who are weaker.

[Magnificent Ponta]

I think what might put Vegeta in a jaundiced light is his idea that Saiyans are expected to be at the top of the food chain.

I guess that insofar as that's true, and insofar as Vegeta thinks of it in those terms, it's really because he just views himself as top of the food chain, abstracted as "Saiyans"; I'm not sure there's room for any other actual Saiyan in Vegeta's perspective. So, when he refers to "Saiyans" in the generic sense, it often seems to me like he's just talking in a self-referential manner rather than about his actual experience of other Saiyans (except where simple points of fact are at issue, like all Saiyans having black hair, or it being normal for Saiyans to just kill people they don't like).

So when Vegeta says to Zarbon "Saiyans are a warrior race! We will not lose!", concretely he just means himself. When he tells Piccolo there's no point in him going into the Room of Spirit and Time because "Only a Saiyan can do any good now", he doesn't really mean he expects Gohan or Trunks to pull out the win, or really do anything much; he just means himself. Likewise when he talks about the pride of a Saiyan, he tends to just mean his own pride, or the power of a Saiyan, his own power, or about 'Super Saiyans', it's on the assumption that only he will be able to do it, etc, etc.

When he actually interacts with other Saiyans, he generally either disparages them (he's "better off without" Raditz; Goku is "trash" - though that's also a class thing; he couldn't care less about the death of the Saiyans or his own parents) or tries to kill them (Nappa, Goku, Gohan, etc.). It might be a little naive to say it, but I just guess I'd've expected more sentiment towards members of his own people from a Supremacist, even a Saiyan Supremacist.

[Polyphase Avatron]

I think the entire narrative of the story is "Saiyan supremacist". And it's been that way for quite a while.

[DragonBallFoodie]

He's always been a Saiyan supremacist.

But he's become able to respect other races/beings for what worth they can give him. That's something I guess.

[Peach]

No.

Racists are from the dominant/most populated ethnic group. Vegeta's race has less than 10 people and were the victims of genocide. Ethnic minorities can be prejudice, but not racist.

[PerhapsTheOtherOne]

He might be biased towards his own race, which is only natural, but he's not really racist.

That would imply that he specifically tries to put down other species. Which he doesn't just plays up his own species.

[Melee_Sovereign]

No.

Racists are from the dominant/most populated ethnic group. Vegeta's race has less than 10 people and were the victims of genocide. Ethnic minorities can be prejudice, but not racist.

Anyone can be racist.

[pepd]

Racist/Speciest as in making more differentiation than there objectively are? No. His comments where about saiyajins being a strong warrior “race”, which is true. As in giving more value? Racist no, speciest against other humanoids maybe at the start, now I don't think so.