Equals

If we respond to members of an identifiable social group as individuals, whether agreeing or disagreeing, liking or disliking etc, then we are treating them as equals whereas, if our response to every member of a particular group is a universal hostility, deference etc, then we are treating them as unequals, either inferior or superior.

Sf shows human beings interacting with members of other rational species. It would be good to get to a stage with an Ythrian, Merseian or kzin where what we noticed was not his alienness but his individuality. Mutual suspicion or hostility between human beings and Ythrians is overcome at various stages of the settlement of Avalon. Beings of Merseian species on Dennitza are free of the supremacism that reigns back on their planet of origin and they will resist any encroachments by the Roidhunate.

In "Hall of the Mountain King," Chapter Fourteen, a kzin struggles with the contradiction that Jonah-human is a monkey and that that monkey has saved his life - at the risk of his own. The kzin's conclusion is that, if he has to kill Jonah, then it can only be in "'...honorable single combat,'" (p. 140) with Jonah's head preserved afterwards. That is how a kzin treats an equal.