Well… perspective. Not sure if it makes it better or worse but… In the lore, Khajiit aren’t necessarily thieves, addicts, or smugglers. Khajiit are… cat people. In general Khajiit culture has very different concepts of law- not just their laws are different, their understanding of rules and law are different. They tend to be more instinctual and much in Khajiit society doesn’t need to be codified because Khajiit tend to naturally understand the important rules to life.
They also have a belief system one might expect of cat people based on common small desert cats which are hunters but also prey animals- they believe the world is out to get them and their wits and skills are all they have.
It goes deeper into things like Khajit concepts of ownership- they do have these things but it is nuanced. Khajit generally don’t see something that is sitting around or just existing as belonging to any particular person whom isn’t using it or claiming it overtly. An example of this might be…
If you left a pie out to cool or hung clothes on a line by the river. A Khajit has no reason to believe they should not be there, and there is nothing that says that pie or those clothes belong to anyone anymore than a squirrel or a wild flower would be assumed to be someone property if you came across it. Of course individual Khajit vary and some are more familiar with concepts like this than others. Their homeland isn’t a lawless land either- but it is quite a bit different than most areas players are used to spending time. But- we can’t deny we encounter a lot of Khajit thieves and addicts and smugglers… why? Well….
There are a few reasons. There isn’t anything inherently shameful to the Khajit about certain acts most humans automatically consider likely “wrong,” and Khajit often are well suited to these types of jobs, which other races often notice and thusly seek to hire Khajit or use them for their skills at those tasks. To the Khajit I can be just a job, a way to take care of themselves or others they care for. But the addicts? The Khajit who do crime and know it or even by Khajit standards they are behaving “wrongly?” Well….
Of course some Khajit are just criminals. That’s true of most any race in the cannon. But it does seem like perhaps more than any other group, a random Khajit you meet is more likely to be some sort of “scumbag” it seems…
There are a couple factors there. The first one we have to look at is why the Khajit are here at all. Many say they miss their homes. Several have lore or dialog which spell out to some degree that they are not able to return… there are a couple main reasons. The first is that they were essentially expelled. They were already scum by Khajit standards or otherwise didn’t meet Khajit social values etc. if almost any country were to basically just deport criminals elsewhere, of course the people you’d meet from that country would be highly likely to be criminals- especially if most of the people in that country generally choose to stay in it.
This creates a situation where these factors converge. The general cultural differences of the Khajit can already make a “good” Khajit a criminal by standards of the empire. So say that a small town encountered one Khajit- a “good” Khajit. This Khajit gets into trouble, they stole clothes off a clothes rack, they ate food off a vendor stall…
.. without paying, they keep getting caught “squatting” on other peoples property because they don’t necessarily see that empty space as “taken,” or those loose items as “yours.” So the Khajit get a reputation for “stealing” and “crime.”
But add the ACTUAL malicious Khajit- pick pockets and burglars and druggies and such- and that could paint a very bad picture. A town might not even allow Khajit or might hassle them. In fact we know from the games there are towns that don’t allow Khajit merchants or shops that don’t allow Khajit. So this is a setting where even absent xenophobia (which often feeds prejudices anyway to the “strange” or “foreign”,) the Khajit can end up essentially on the fringe of society just for being Khajit.
So what happens next? They need to eat, they need and want things, but they may be outright barred from commerce or even entry and they may face bias when trying to conduct commerce or even be employed gainfully. But- there are people who would pay for the aptitudes Khajit often naturally posses, and of course Khajit can use their talents for their own survival and benefit too. These two things often might find Khajit in the seedier sides of society. In these seedier sides what do we find? Drugs. Now- Khajit generally frown on skooma- so some Khajit may be in Greater Tamriel or elsewhere because they were ran out as Skooma users, that said, getting a Khajit addicted to skooma is one method to use than for your own purposes and we know that being in a position of low socioeconomic status and forced to live a life of exclusion from “mainstream” society and often being unhomed or economically disadvantaged can be a risk factor for drug addiction.
It can be very boring to be in a spot where you can’t work and don’t have anything productive to do and can’t afford entertainment. Drugs can be both a relative cheap (to start) means to alleviate boredom but for those facing hunger and the elements and hardship and a generally negative life prospect without hope- drugs can be a form of escapism to allow you to feel “good” or at least not feel at all or not feel so “bad” for awhile. So under the conditions many Khajit might face we can see roads to Scooma use. And of course, this flows to the reverse where a Khajit, wether otherwise “good” or “bad” finds themselves caught in one of the numerous ways a Khajit can be left destitute and marginalized. The Khajit ends up hooked on skooma and once addicted they must feed that addiction and so they turn to crime. One might say that a Khajit could simply “get clean,” but.. why? For what? As stated before- a chief cause to turn to skooma may very well be the lack of opportunity or hope of
Opportunity. If a Khajit gets addicted because they couldn’t find a place in society and no one would hire them and they couldnt even start a business because they can’t get loans and can’t even get access to markets or certain towns etc. or no one trusts them as a Khajit- if they clean up does all that change or are they just now back where they started with no prospects and a crushing boredom/despair/hurt?
The prejudice of the Nords to Khajit shows well how to make a problem worse for everyone. It’s easier to just sum things up as the Khajit are low lifes than to address the myriad of issues that exist both as an exchange of cultures between Khajit and Nords but also those issues already existing in nord culture that contribute to or create issues with the Khajit.
Of course- wether this was intended to be a commentary and what that commentary is intended to mean I cannot say. What I can say is that it is often the case that fantasy works draw from real life social issues to create narrative tension and immersion. World building is vast and difficult so taking a conflict between two real life groups or some real life historical events and redressing them with some new names and such or amalgamating several real life inspirations together is easier than coming up with unique and seemingly organic social politics and history. Much of it is trope based- especially in fantasy where you often have things like “elves are magical,” “dwarves make good items,” etc etc. given that cats (asides “big cats”) generally aren’t known for their bulk and might so much as agility and temperament, it makes sense cat races are often “thieves” and such. The rest sort of falls into place when one considers how real life tends to fill out around thievery and sneakiness.
To some degree anyway. So was this an intentional imitation of some social groups or issues or merely a logical extrapolation based on tropes and meant to add lore? I can’t say. I can say that there is perhaps more to it than simply the Khajit are just humans that look like cats and tend to commit crime. Khajit are a distinct race with certain traits and their own culture. As a real life example- while your dog or bird or hamster or horse or cat might be able to fit into the “human world” in various ways and have certain adaptations or understanding to suit this, they aren’t human are they? Your horse or dog doesn’t generally think the way you do, they don’t have the same ideas on romance or property or fun even if there are similarities and even if they at times remind you of a person.
Wether a different species or less extreme differences, most living creatures share some things in common and can often get along or learn to- but having shared things or similarities doesn’t mean we should think of everyone as the same as us with the same values and thought processes. It is both generally not prudent or realistic but also disrespectful to assume everyone or everything is “the same” just because there maybe some similarities. Finding “sameness” and compatibility is where we find common ground to help us coexist. understanding and respecting differences is where we find respect and make coexistence practical.
So the Khajit are a different species with their own instincts and their own culture that evolved on their own from humans for most of their existence.
They also have a belief system one might expect of cat people based on common small desert cats which are hunters but also prey animals- they believe the world is out to get them and their wits and skills are all they have.
It goes deeper into things like Khajit concepts of ownership- they do have these things but it is nuanced. Khajit generally don’t see something that is sitting around or just existing as belonging to any particular person whom isn’t using it or claiming it overtly. An example of this might be…
Of course some Khajit are just criminals. That’s true of most any race in the cannon. But it does seem like perhaps more than any other group, a random Khajit you meet is more likely to be some sort of “scumbag” it seems…
This creates a situation where these factors converge. The general cultural differences of the Khajit can already make a “good” Khajit a criminal by standards of the empire. So say that a small town encountered one Khajit- a “good” Khajit. This Khajit gets into trouble, they stole clothes off a clothes rack, they ate food off a vendor stall…
But add the ACTUAL malicious Khajit- pick pockets and burglars and druggies and such- and that could paint a very bad picture. A town might not even allow Khajit or might hassle them. In fact we know from the games there are towns that don’t allow Khajit merchants or shops that don’t allow Khajit. So this is a setting where even absent xenophobia (which often feeds prejudices anyway to the “strange” or “foreign”,) the Khajit can end up essentially on the fringe of society just for being Khajit.
The prejudice of the Nords to Khajit shows well how to make a problem worse for everyone. It’s easier to just sum things up as the Khajit are low lifes than to address the myriad of issues that exist both as an exchange of cultures between Khajit and Nords but also those issues already existing in nord culture that contribute to or create issues with the Khajit.
So the Khajit are a different species with their own instincts and their own culture that evolved on their own from humans for most of their existence.