I don't mean that Tarl Cabot thought about racism. I think the book was written that way because the author John Norman didn't want to be labeled a racist. He didn't want one of his white characters owning any black characters. In every other book Tarl Cabot owned and had sex with women of different races, and men of different races owned and had sex with white women. The only exception was this book. If John Norman was actually racist, I think he would have enjoyed writing about white people owning black people. But he didn't. He took great pains to avoid it. In fact, it actually made this book even more awkward than his other books.