system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
[Star Wars] Was Sheev actually speciesist, or was that just a great way to gain power through sowing fear?

I know the separatists were also industrial/economic giants, was  speciesism the easiest way to dismantle them?
gpt
More than anything, Palpatine was pragmatic and opportunist. He wouldn't reject somebody useful to him just because they weren't human. His Sith master was non-human (Legends?), as was his first Sith apprentice, his closest advisors in the Senate, and later one of his most trusted admirals.

Palpatine let the Empire become xenophobic because he thought it was useful to his goals, nothing more.