You don't understand. Assassin's Creed III IS about racism. The issue of racism is embedded DEEPLY into the game's core and not enough people talk about it.
The game does a REMARKABLE job with portraying the BLATANT hypocrisy of the colonists and the Founding Fathers. It's in the way they are so quick to use Connor and his skills for their own ends, never TRULY giving back to him in anyway that's equal to what he gave them.
It's in the way Connor calls out Sam Adams hypocrisy for owning Surry. And the way Sam claims the liberties of those who aren't white can wait because THE WHITE people don't have their freedom. But "don't worry. We will get to them when we get to them"
Except the kind of freedom he's equating is one of economic and political representation for men like HIM while those like Surry are literal PROPERTY. While people like Connor are treated like pests who's land they can steal and who's culture and identity becomes a holy fucking mission to destroy. While women full stop WERE NOT CONSIDERED AT ALL. This was a war for the freedom of white men. Not everyone and it's a joke it was at all considered a war for freedom.
George Washington also being the massive racist he was. Actively USING Connor for his own ends and throwing his people to the wolves while dressing up his own bigotry in a heroic veneer you can smell from a mile off.
And Charles Lee. Oh that bastard. THE racist. His monologue to a CHILD who's throat he is crushing being so cruel, so devoid of any humanity right before he burns a tribe theoretically because he could not find the precursor site. Showing the true colours of this man we spent hours befriending. How the "eager, enthusiastic side kick" act Haytham fell for peels away to reveal a deeply bigoted man.
Haytham's own short comings too. Connor's white father excusing his racist buddy even when he learns Lee KILLED his wife/partner (to put it bluntly) Haytham actively using the danger coming for Connor's tribe to manipulate Connor. Using this as a tool for his tactics instead of the serious matter it is without a care for how it would affect Connor AND assuming point blank Connor would FALL for it.
It's in the way that guard sees Connor and Haytham together and says mockingly "tasted the forest fruits did you?" To Haytham while Connor is RIGHT there.
It's in the way at the end of the game Connor stands on his own, looking at the new country he helped form and realising his people are still gone, pushed away because of the deals and politics formed by the colonists he helped. It's in the way the last shot of the revolution happens, and Connor looks back to see a fucking slave auction. Realising he was used again and again by people who claimed freedom and equality but never actually MEANT it in the ways it should apply.
It's in the way Achilles as a character is important and how his identity shaped him and his sense of the world.
It's in the way Connor can't go by his REAL name.
If this game came out today it would be censored to high hell to protect the sensibilities of Americans who only believe a fairytale of how their country was formed into what it is today. I'm actually so impressed the writers CARED enough about the history of this time period to more accurately show what was REALLY going. And it's why it's one of my favourites...back when history was more than a fucking backdrop for the games and when it mattered to the narrative.
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