Fiona,
However, I still think the balance of available evidence does rule against racism, or overt racism anyway. As I said to Dana, Dayna's race is seldom remarked on and when it is, it's not in a fashion which singles it out at all for denigration *or* approval; neither she nor her father give the slightest hint that they have suffered racial persecution (Hal Mellanby is a rebel, but visibly not a Black Panther); Dayna *does* pass on Helotrix without comment. You can then, of course, raise the paucity of Asian/East Asian/Afrocaribbean officers, gentlemen etc. in the Federation, but to be honest, that seems to be the case for the entire galaxy, even independent or rebel planets/outposts-- and may be more evidence of past than of present racism (much as the fact that there are fewer Jews today in certain European countries than fifty years ago gives evidence not necessarily of modern, but of past antisemitism). We're back to the old negative-evidence argument, and I suppose that depends on where you stand on whether not seen=none or not seen=possible (and which, incidentally, goes for homophobia as well, since we don't see evidence for or against).
I agree with you on this, as I have always felt that the Federation, whatever its other faults, did not discriminate on racial or sexual grounds. Indeed, it could have made a virtue of this in its propaganda, contrasting its racial and sexual equality with past states who didn't do this, despite calling themselves democracies.
None of the opponents of Servalan opposed her because she was a woman; and I certainly heard no comments about her being unfit to rule due to her sex. Regarding the Mellanbys, Hal's attitude towards the Sarrens is that of cultural, not racial superiority; and Servalan dislikes him for political, not racial reasons.
However, the fact that it was the Programme Guide that misled me is an interesting one. The Programme Guide is therefore not canon; a point I'd agree with. But what other "official" written materials are not canon?
Trevor Hoyle's three novelisations spring to mind. They are not regarded as canon, though they contain some information not in the episodes that fanfic writers might find useful, such as the assertion that Blake worked in the Engineering Division prior to his arrest in _The Way Back_.
Murray