Do you believe Larry was racist? Why or why not?
Personally, I don't. There's really no hard evidence for it. Here are the reasons I have seen people claim he is:
- If Lee calls him a racist, he doesn't outright deny the accusation.
- He calls Lee "boy", and can have racist connotations.
- Larry hating Lee can be strange considering he's the only dark-skinned person in the group.
- Clementine can call him a racist in Season 4 through a dialogue choice.
I feel like these claims really have no merit. I'll break it down here:
- Larry doesn't deny the accusation, but you can tell from his face that he's surprised at the accusation, almost appalled. Followed by him saying, "So that's what you think this is?" It's pretty obvious that Larry is saying this in a "are you serious right now?" sort of tone. He doesn't deny it outright because he doesn't care what Lee thinks about him, it's not that he IS racist, it's that he doesn't care if Lee THINKS his race has anything to do with it. That might not be convincing to you on it's own, but take this scene if you actually are nice to Larry:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xC7_1rKoWCE
At the scene when you give Larry the axe, if Mark tells him that Lee knows that Larry is simply looking out for his daughter, Larry doesn't yell at Lee and tells them that a lack of food and the stress is making him cranky. Why does Larry back down here? Well, it's because Lee is right, so Larry has no ammunition to attack with, so he backs down. To me, this means that this interpretation of Larry's actions is the correct one, as all the other ones make him mad because Larry does not agree with them.
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The idea that Larry calling Lee boy is on its own racist, has no real basis. Sure, it's been used for racial divide in the past, but it's also used as a general form of disrespect. Think about it: When a teenager is called "kid" by an adult, what do they usually say? "I'm not a kid", right? They take it disrespectfully, heck, Clementine says this multiple times throughout the series herself. The implication is that the person is not as intelligent or as capable as the person saying it, the person saying it is the "superior" in the situation, right? So, when Larry calls Lee "boy", it's to put Lee down from Larry's level, it's to disrespect him, not to make a racist statement.
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Larry hating Lee simply comes down to him being a murderer. Nothing more and nothing less. How do we know this? Well, when Larry tells Lee at the end of Episode 1 that he knows his secret, he brings up the fact that he's trying to protect Lily, so he'll be watching him. Not only that, but he also mentions Clementine, and says that if Lee screws up with her, then he better "watch his ass". What part of this ever indicates race? He outright spells his reasons for disdain right there for you. And realistically speaking, put aside your bias for Lee as a player, if we were in Larry's shoes, would you not be wary around a man that was literally JUST convicted for murder of a government official? AND he's apparently started taking care of a little girl he doesn't even know? Yeah, we know Lee is a good guy, but the character at that point in time don't know him from Adam.
I hope my reasonings make sense, but I'm curious on the opinion of others.
Posted Oct 28, 2025, 4:50 PM UTC