BrettM

They would also agree that Brunwulf is not a racist and that they are better off with him on the throne. Yet, no matter which man is jarl of Windhelm, the Argonians are restricted to the docks. So it would seem that their opinion is based on something other than the reality of how they are treated, given that there is no objective evidence that they are better off in any way under Brunwulf. I have little respect for opinions that have no appreciable grounding in fact. Someone who patronizes another race is just as racist as someone who hates them. However, we have no proof that Ulfric hates them, while we do have proof that Brunwulf patronizes them. Brunwulf is condemned by his own words when asked if he will lift the restriction. We do not know Ulfric's motive for the restriction, and hatred is not the only possible explanation.

I've been wondering the same thing. The demand appears to exhibit the same kind of bogus "with us or against us" thinking that is all too prevalent in both Tamriel and our world. If Ulfric doesn't use his bully pulpit to denounce bigotry, then he must be assumed to support it, right? Nobody ever seems to notice the obvious parallels between Windhelm and Whiterun. In Windhelm you have Rolff and his sidekick bullying a Dunmer woman because of her race and yelling out drunken insults in the Gray Quarter at ungodly cow-milking hours. In Whiterun you have Olfrid and his son bullying and teasing a poor old woman because of her political beliefs and yelling out insults against her family in broad daylight while stone sober. To me, both situations are equally repulsive. However, you can't hang a convenient label like "racism" on what is happening in Whiterun, thus branding it a thought crime. Some people are more interested in the motive than in the act, and the same act somehow becomes more evil if it can be claimed to be the result of an unapproved motive. Yet I see more deliberate, focused cruelty in Olfrid's mocking of a concerned mother than in Rolff's unfocused bigotry.

Balgruuf has been extremely lucky so far in dodging the presence of the Empire in his city. His people do, for now, have freedom of religion and speech, so things look pretty good from where he sits. But that means he is not fully aware of what is going on elsewhere in Skyrim and how others are suffering. He doesn't know how close Ancano came to causing a disaster. He doesn't have to look at a squad of Thalmor justiciars parading around in his palace, trying to recruit informants to help them with their dirty work and telling anyone who asks that the Empire only exists because the Dominion allows it to exist. He doesn't have Thalmor hirelings skulking around his city or standing outside his gates with assassination contracts in their pockets. Yet. This can't last forever. Tullius wants into Whiterun as badly as Ulfric does, for the same reason: it's a strategic position. Tullius has reached the point where he's willing to "embellish" the facts to get what he wants, and I have no doubt he would have eventually gotten around to stronger forms of arm twisting if deception was not enough. Once the Legion troops are in place, I suspect the Thalmor won't be far behind. They have a presence in Markarth and Solitude, and no reason not to want one in Whiterun given its central location and status. As for Balgruuf standing up for his own people, please tell me exactly how he stood up for them when the son of one of the leading families of his city was taken away by the Thalmor for torture. Did he even so much as write a letter of protest to Tullius or make any attempt to find out whether Thorald was alive or dead? Was he outraged that one of his people was hauled off without the benefit of a fair trial? I see no sign that he cared even a bit.