> "Racism was not a problem on the Discworld, because—what with trolls and dwarfs and so on—speciesism was more interesting. Black and white lived in perfect harmony and ganged up on green."

So, it's on 𝘩𝘶𝘮𝘢𝘯 racism in Witches Abroad where Pratchett let his world-skewering satire curl up by the fire. Mrs. Pleasant, as an underdeveloped secondary character, fits uncomfortably within the Mammy stereotype:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mammy_stereotype

> "She was a cook, so she bustled. And made sure she stayed fat and was, fortunately, naturally jolly. She made sure she had floury arms at all times. If she felt under suspicion, she’d say things like “Lawks!” She seemed to be getting away with it so far."

Witches Abroad intends to satirise what is essentially three British ladies on holiday, acting out their ignorance in a very, err, British way (Granny's shouting at an inn-keeper to be understood comes to mind).

It's also got two example of Pratchett's characterisation at its worst.

Sure, one might read Mrs. Pleasant differently - we learn from her that Genuans are being arrested for not meeting stereotypes (👇):

What if she's supposed to be seen as a stereotype, either because the antagonist's abuse of story magic has made her so, or she's changed her behaviour to evade arrest? Sorry, but if Pratchett intended that, he would've made a great, red blinking point of it.

He would've written something to suggest this, that this is bad, and that we should take the side against it. "Getting away with it" is too shallow to hold such deep subtext.

On the way to Genua (a cross between Oz's Emerald City, Disney's Magic Kingdom, and New Orleans), Granny and Nanny come across an ordinary, unmagical wolf that's been anthropomorphised through story magic.

But it's still a wolf. It's not a werewolf, as it can't change its appearance. Besides which, werewolves are neither human nor wolf. But in stories, 𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘺𝘰𝘯𝘦 expects the Big Bad Wolf to act human - they don't expect him to act wolf. Or werewolf, for that matter.

If story magic dictated that all black Genuan women working in service must look and act like a Mammy or Aunt Jemima, just as innkeepers must be fat and have a big red face, or just as the wolf must act human against his own nature, then 𝘸𝘦 𝘴𝘩𝘰𝘶𝘭𝘥 𝘩𝘢𝘷𝘦 𝘣𝘦𝘦𝘯 𝘵𝘰𝘭𝘥.