"Predators" vs "Prey" dynamic. Predators were violent savages in the past, but learned to be civilized. Many Prey discriminate against them because they still believe that predators are inherently violent.

The carnivores were presented as 'historically savage', and the prey presented as "historically civilized". And the underlying assumption made by all the characters is that it's 'it's in their nature', clearly a reference to social darwinism. At one point it turns out that the mayor of the city is running a concentration camp/experiment lab that kidnaps predators, and runs experiments on them to figure out why they're violent.

And the city depicted in the movie appears to idealize a literal segregated society, in the Jim Crow sense. Sure, no group is put at an obvious disadvantage, but each group/culture lives in its own neighborhood, works a specific set of jobs, etc, and overall everyone seems to casually accept (and be very happy with) self-segregation.

The message is supposed to be "predators are normal people and shouldn't be treated differently from prey" and "all cultures should be respected", but the way it's presented is "we should do that by ignoring the biological traits and historical interactions of the groups" which is unintentionally really racist.

"Predators" vs "Prey" dynamic. Predators were violent savages in the past, but learned to be civilized. Many Prey discriminate against them because they still believe that predators are inherently violent.

The carnivores were presented as 'historically savage', and the prey presented as "historically civilized". And the underlying assumption made by all the characters is that it's 'it's in their nature', clearly a reference to social darwinism. At one point it turns out that the mayor of the city is running a concentration camp/experiment lab that kidnaps predators, and runs experiments on them to figure out why they're violent.

And the city depicted in the movie appears to idealize a literal segregated society, in the Jim Crow sense. Sure, no group is put at an obvious disadvantage, but each group/culture lives in its own neighborhood, works a specific set of jobs, etc, and overall everyone seems to casually accept (and be very happy with) self-segregation.

The message is supposed to be "predators are normal people and shouldn't be treated differently from prey" and "all cultures should be respected", but the way it's presented is "we should do that by ignoring the biological traits and historical interactions of the groups" is unintentionally really racist.