Premise:
Both races are humanoid, covered with fur, similar in intelligence, dexterity etc... Evolved in parallel to fill very similar environments, and split off the other (genetically) relatively recently.
Due to having very different cultures(think medieval Chinese and Britons) and the fact that the races were on separate continents, interbreeding wasnt a big issue, especially given the fact, that
Interbreeding causes the offspring to be infertile. Think donkeys and horses. Mules are bigger, stronger and more docile but infertile. And less interested in sex overall. Similar effects here. Intelligence, dexterity and agility is not affected however and varies with the normal distribution. There would be precedents of course like within slavery etc... but nothing world-threatening.
Think two tall(6') mixed parents could have a 7'6 child.
For the sake of mental imagery lets call them cat-people, dog-people and mule-people.
Now it's 21st century, and like in our world, societal barriers are breaking down. Cat-people and dog-people serve similar roles in the global society, They're all in a mix everywhere, cohabit easily, cat and dog children go to the same schools and one might have had a white collar job boss that was the opposite race. Think metropolitan, white and blue collar societies.
How would mule-people integrate?
How plausible is it for mules to be welcomed like just-another-person? How plausible is it for them to be shunned?
Inability to have offspring kind of dooms the mule societies from ever being large in numbers. How would that affect the mule-nonmule relations?
Would low libido cause mules to be uninterested in having offspring, or rather would be more determined to be parents?
Any real life analogies? (Thanks, Bald Bear}
EDIT: @Frostfyre and @Alexander: The "background" is modern todays world. Assuming we are two "human-like" races which get along like we do now (say like asians and europeans do), how would existence of mules affect their relationships, also, I asked specifically about:
- integration,
- shunning,
- minority status
- offspring
All of those are closely related and focus on the acceptance/non-acceptance of a particular (species?) in the culture.
@L.Dutch For the same reason people who by no choice of their own can't have offspring. Or whey wouldn't because it's not in their brains. I don't know, so I'm asking so that I may have a chance of getting feedback from someone who, for example had an experience with asexual people(unsure if the term applies tho). ^ What I mean here, if they can't have their own offspring, would they try to have "offspring" in other ways.
