Humanity F Yeah and (Space Alien Xenophobia solving human on human bigotry) is hollow when so many space alien designs borrow from existing human cultures.

Hey y'all.

This is something of a short rant, but any attempt to make humanity special in a sci-fi setting with space aliens or to attempt to claim that the opposition to space aliens feels hollow to me for one simple reason.

Aliens in those stories still heavily borrow from IRL human cultures.

Here's an example thst really brought it out of me, Warhammer 40k, in particular the T'au and the White Scars., due to them being fairly close in terms of their references.

One is a species of aliens whose look and voice design is an amalgam of a whole bunch of East Asian cultures as viewed by American/British people.

The other is the heavily modified human space warriors who borrow a lot from the Mongolians of the Mongolian Empire.

Both have appeared in video games I have played (Shootaz: Blood and Teef | Dawn of War: Dark Crusade). And basically had the same voice direction in their respective games.