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The Role and Effect of Writers of Color in

Shyam Pradheep

Writing 293

Pradheep 2

Abstract

There has been a substantial influx of writers of color within science fiction over the last few decades, but there has been little documentation of how these writers have changed a that was created and shaped by white American and European writers. My will explore the role and effects of writers of color in science fiction by engaging with the challenge of how science fiction is defined and understood by writers and scholars in the past and in the present.

Science fiction primarily deals with the and hence is a window into how different view the future. While white writers tend to imagine that disregard racial differences and center white characters to the exclusion of others, my essay argues that writers of color incorporate race into their texts as a way of redefining the genre and the future by moving away from the racial homogeneity that previously dominated science fiction texts. They do this by placing people of color within their works as instead of as supporting characters.

Writers of color logically extrapolate the current state of race relations into the future and hence represent a more realistic vision of the future with regards to race. The essay also takes a closer look at movements such as and the tropes of -Orientalism. Octavia Butler’s

Parable of the Sower will be used as a guiding text to review how Afrofuturism enables race to a dominant role in science fiction . Concurrently, Chang Rae Lee’s On Such a Full

Sea will also be incorporated into the essay to evaluate how writing back to the tropes of

Techno-Orientalism can be used to empower people of Asian heritage. Additionally, both the aforementioned movements encompass the positive and negative ways in which technological advancements can manifest in the future. My essay details race’s pivotal role in science fiction novels and as a consequence, why it is important for more recognition to be given to writers of Pradheep 3 color as their redefinition of the future could very well influence how we as a better shape the future.

Introduction

A group called the “” may sound appealing, but this hate-mongering crowd is anything but endearing. The group has played a consequential role in in stirring up controversies at the Hugo Awards – which honor achievement in science fiction and works – during 2015 and 2016. The members of this tried to take advantage of an arcane voting loophole in order to get a large number of votes for writers that they preferred, thereby pushing out deserving writers who were female, homosexual, or non-white. The

“Puppies,” as they like to call themselves, further put up a list of authors that they endorsed and urged others to vote for them (Wallace 1). In response to this Amy Wallace stated,

Would sci-fi focus, as it has for much of its history, largely on brave white male

engineers with ray guns fighting either a) hideous aliens or b) hideous governments

who don’t want them to mine asteroids in ? Or would it continue its embrace

of a broader sci-fi: stories about non-traditionally gendered explorers and post-

singularity, post-ethnic characters who are sometimes not men and often even have

feelings (Wallace 1).

However, The Puppies did not get their way. Authors of color such as Nnedi Okarafor,

N.K. Jemisin, Hao Jinfang, and Ellen Datlow won awards defying the expectations of the

“Puppies” (Schaub). Voters came out in droves in order to reject the Puppies’ message. In 2016, Pradheep 4 more than 65 percent more voters had voted than ever before (Wallace). This is a trend that should not go unnoticed. Writers of color have been gaining prominence over the past couple of years while placing front and center themes of race and discrimination – and readers are responding to their message. This is particularly important as it emphasizes that readers not only hope to have more writers of color but also are cognizant of the importance of giving these writers a space to receive the recognition they deserve.

This paper will to aim to answer a number of questions: how has science fiction as a genre imagined the future of race? How are people of color redefining this future? And why does it ? In attempting to answer these questions, this paper will look at two different movements: Afrofuturism and writing back to the tropes of Techno-Orientalism; specifically, how these two movements recenter to empower people of color.

Science Fiction and Writers of Color

Aliens, , and are some of the more frequent words that are associated with “science fiction”. However, it is necessary to consider whether that is all there is to science fiction. Science deals with quantifiable and concrete observations. On the other hand, fiction refers to works that are fabricated or imaginary. Science and fiction seem like an unlikely pair, but when combined with each other, they represent two sides of the same coin. Science fiction describes what , as a species, aspire to gain from science. Much like how in

Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea managed to describe a large portion of modern day submarines well before their , science fiction hopes to push the limits of what humans can and want to achieve. Pradheep 5

While there are that are generally accepted to be part of science fiction as a genre, there appears to be a lack of consensus on a strict definition. John Rieder reminds us that they are “a scholarly necessity… the problem of definition testifies to its importance in establishing a framework for constructing the history of the genre, specifying its range and extent, locating its principle sites of production and reception, selecting its canon of masterpieces, and so on” (Rieder 191). Definitions also help better identify instances where a change took place. While are constantly growing through the addition of new works, having a fixed definition allows for continued discourse on how these works have either shifted an earlier perception of the genre or have fallen within our expectations of it.

American-Canadian sci-fi author Judith Merill defines it as “tomorrow’s machines today” (Merril 37). But as science fiction critic Paul Kincaid notes, “Science fiction is not one thing. Rather it is any number of things” (Kincaid 416). Kincaid further states that it is impossible to “extract a unique, common thread” from all science fiction texts (Kincaid 415).

Rieder puts forth several axioms in order to help classify texts. Two of his axioms include: “sf is mutable and historical” and “sf is not a set of texts, but rather a way of using texts and of drawing relationships among them” (Rieder 193). Because science fiction extrapolates the future based on the present and the past, it makes sense that history should dictate the future. Authors who disregard history as merely a product of circumstances in the past choose to be wilfully ignorant of the power of history. But as Rieder’s second axiom points out, science fiction relies less on the content of the text and more on how the content is used – a text does not have to contain aliens, robots, or technology to be considered science fiction. Science fiction texts don’t have to have a fixed formula to them and can and should assimilate aspects of current societal issues into them when extrapolating the future. Pradheep 6

American author John W. Campbell started the golden era of science fiction and set the precedent for science fiction to be understood as an “application of technological developments to problems; the application of human development to technology” (Merill 42). The second part of the definition is particularly important in understanding science fiction.

Technology, for the most part, has evolved in order to accommodate mankind’s needs. However, in science fiction, where the only limit is the author’s , technology has evolved to accommodate mankind’s desires as well – for better or for worse. Technology took center stage and eclipsed all other aspects of life that affected humans before its evolution. White American or European authors who have long dominated the field of science fiction have applied the first half of Campbell’s definition in its entirety while largely ignoring the second half of his definition that spoke about “the application of human development to technology.” Most of their texts remained homogenous in their construct and did not take into consideration social and racial inequality when writing about how humans responded to a sudden growth in technology.

Race relations have been an extremely pressing issue in the past and are still currently a point of strife in all across America. But oftentimes science fiction authors take the to quell the very of race as an important aspect of identity in in the future. Harmony among races and the idea of humanity uniting as one in the future became commonplace in science fiction texts across the . However, in hindsight, when we look at these works, it is painfully evident that they are not accurate extrapolations of the past or the present, as race is inextricably woven into the fabric of our society. There is no that an increase in technological capabilities has had a direct correlation with better race relations.

White American and European authors tend to place their own and heritage at the center of the human race. Large parts of the world were once colonized under primarily Pradheep 7

Caucasian races and this has made it hard for authors of Caucasian descent to imagine a future where their race is not still dominant Writers of color have historically faced a position in society in which they lack the same privilege. As a result, because their identities are rooted in their lack of representation, they are more inclined to articulate the importance of race within their work, weaving in the past and the present in their construction of the future. Writers of color write about in the future where problems of race are not yet solved. They understand that an increase in scientific capabilities does not magically erase or justify years of strife and .

Their work reflects this conflict. The lives of people of color are dictated by the political climate and their futures are heavily influenced by the systemic and institutionalized problems of the past. As a product of this, their conceptualizations of the future strive to focus on either the direct challenges to such circumstances or the worlds in which race is addressed, thus positioning it as a drastic change from current conditions.

Canadian Professor Perry Nodelman points out that one of the primary functions of science fiction texts is to describe “unfamiliar things as if they were familiar” (Nodelman 1).

Writers of color make sure to incorporate culture and racial strife into their work. They manage to portray an unfamiliar world as familiar by writing about racial tensions that are present in today’s society, but logically extrapolated to fit the mold of a fictional futuristic world. In his book Colonialism and the of Science Fiction, Rieder explores ’s

The Comical History of States and Empires of and the Sun and argues that Cyrano’s work

“is hardly a matter of celestial mechanics…The importance of his is as far less to do with

Copernicus taking the out of the centre of the than with Cyrano’s taking his own culture out of the centre of the human race, making it no longer definitive of the range of human possibilities.” Rieder argues that Cyrano is able to expand the horizons for what his book Pradheep 8 can accomplish by refusing to limit his work when it comes to of race and culture.

Similarly, writers of color have been paving the way for a new kind of science fiction: one where the representations of the future are not limited by the lack of imagination by white authors.

Afrofuturism

Author Ytasha Womack helpfully provides a robust definition of Afrofuturism as “an intersection of imagination, technology, the future, and liberation” where “Afrofuturists redefine culture and notions of blackness for today and the future” in her creative non-fiction collection of essays, Afrofuturism: The World of Black Sci –Fi and Fantasy Culture (Womack 3). However,

Afrofuturism can be looked at through different lenses. While Womack’s definition focuses on imagining blackness, scholar Tobias C. Van Veen describes Afrofuturism through the lens of systemic racism. He argues that it is “a positive means to overcome barriers presented by systemic racism and socioeconomic inequality” (Van Veen 153). He further states that

“Afrofuturism’s mission is to invade the present with futures revisioned from the past” (Van

Veen 154). The future is constantly changing; however, this constant change is a function of our actions in the present. The way we view the future will influence how we shape our future.

Afrofuturism ensures that the future that we envision is built on the foundations of our past.

However, an expansion of Van Veen’s definition to include revisions from the present would thus allow it to be more inclusive and an accurate portrayal of current circumstances. While it is important to base the future on a historical context, it seems counterproductive to ignore the convoluted conditions of race relations in the present. Contemporary race relations plays a very important role in the way Afrofuturism takes shape in literary texts and should not be ignored. Pradheep 9

Most importantly, Afrofuturism stresses the importance of acknowledging race in the future, a topic that science fiction authors in the past have failed to adequately address.

According to Rabkin and Scholes “the presence of unhuman races, aliens, and robots, certainly makes the differences between human races seem appropriately trivial... and the matter of race comparatively unimportant” (Rabkin and Scholes 188-189). Race was and is an important part of society; there has been no evidence to disprove the importance of race as a crucial part of our identities in the future. African Americans have never had control of their racial identity, now or in the past. It is an unfortunate truth that being black is racially marked in a way that being white never is. Being white affords one the privilege of being “normal.” By failing to address the issue of race in their works, white authors center whiteness by default whereas characters of color are tokenized or not included at all. The Afrofuturist movement alters science fiction by insisting on the importance of black people shaping the future.

Afrofuturism has been championed by many authors including Octavia E. Butler. Butler is known for being the first ever science fiction author to win the coveted MacArthur “Genius

Grant” as well as for pioneering a new wave of science fiction novels that place African-

American characters at the forefront.

In her book of the Sower, Butler describes the journey of a young black woman named Lauren Olamina in a dystopian future where people live in gated . The land outside the gated communities is filled with drug addicts and thieves, as resources have dried up, and poverty is ubiquitous. Lauren is forced to flee from her gated once it is destroyed. She is joined by others on her journey north as she hopes to find a better place to settle. All this while Lauren is developing her own religion, “Earthseed,” with the hopes of spreading its teachings to others. Butler’s chronicles Lauren and her group’s expedition Pradheep 10 north as they struggle to survive in a future that frequently involves violence against religious and ethnic minorities and mixed race relations.

Race plays a very important role in Butler’s books. This is clearly seen in Parable of the

Sower as the , Lauren Olamina, is black. A dystopian future is a dytopia for everyone, not just for people who belong to one specific race. By creating a black protagonist,

Butler envisions a world that people of color are actively contributing to, thereby giving people of color a world where they get the representation they need. This runs completely counter to the trends established in previous science fiction books where the protagonists have been predominantly white. In Parable of the Sower, Lauren describes the state of her community when she explains that “people are expected to fear and hate everyone but their own kind”

(Butler 36). In a society where the citizens are inherently distrustful of each other, Butler broke and chose to make the potential saviour black. This is of vital importance as it is was unheard of to have a black protagonist play the messiah/prophet figure in the field of .

Throughout the book, Lauren develops her religion, Earthseed, and is able to get people to believe in and follow her. By creating a that has the capacity to lead and influence,

Butler is able to change the surrounding a previously homogenous science fiction character base and ultimately providing power to a marginalized community in both current society and in fictional . This also ties into Womack’s definition of Afrofuturism through the lens of redefining black people as primary characters in a book as opposed to supporting characters.

Lauren’s race is not lost on the other characters in the book, and it is evident that race is a topic of constant friction between the various groups in Butler’s novel. One instance where

Butler explicitely addresses race is when Lauren and her friend feel relieved when they see a Pradheep 11 white and a black mover come to help them (Butler 139). The relief that Lauren and her friend feel is critical to understanding race relations in Butler’s novel. This relief is a statement against the hierarchy of race seen in works by white authors. While it is common for people of all races to work together in most novels by white authors, Lauren feels relief as it is an uncommon scene for her. Butler’s characters are constantly cognizant of their race and are forced to navigate complex race issues throughout their arc in the book. By making sure that race still very much affects her characters in the book, Butler hits back at the idea of science fiction authors taking away race as an important part of people’s identity in the future. By doing this, Butler redefines how science fiction portrays the future and redefines race relations itself. Butler doesn’t view race relations as a problem with a silver bullet solution; but instead sees it as a complex, ever- evolving mechanism that requires diligent work to employ the necessary societal change which would introduce equality and equity alike.

Afrofuturism extrapolates historical or present-day conditions in order to serve as a warning for the future. Afrofuturism asks that race be considered as more than just a footnote and be given the due recognition that it deserves in texts. Butler manages to accomplish this by creating a diverse group of characters in her novel and describes their individual struggles with race. An example of this is when Lauren reminisces about the time when two other characters,

Craig Dunn and Siti Moss, who are white and black respectively, were caught making love. She feared that “someone was going to get killed,” as it is unacceptable for a white and black person to be together in The Parable of the Sower (Butler 87). The characters in Butler’s book are constantly forced to reckon with their race even with matters relating to which partner they choose to be with. This is significant as race is influencing parts of their lives which shouldn’t be affected by race. The choice of partners should be rooted in emotion; however, society goes as Pradheep 12 far as to limit mixed race relationships. Racial discord is a way of life in this . This is a sharp contrast to how by white authors try to isolate class, , or other aspects of society from race. This ties into Van Veen’s definition of Afrofuturims as there still seems to be systemic racism existing in Lauren’s community. Another example is when a black character,

Blankole, is talking to Harry, a white character, about his old neighbourhood. He mentions that being black can make it a lot harder for people to trust somebody whereas it might be easier for

Harry to “win over people faster” due to his race (Butler 320). Butler does not choose to have token characters of color, nor does she choose to use race simply as a prop to advance the .

Butler weaves the central idea of Afrofuturism into her book seamlessly: race is as much a part of the future as anything else. Afrofuturism as a movement doesn’t dictate that the entire novel be a commentary on race, rather, it pushes science fiction novels to enable characters to acknowledge their race as part of their identity in order to implicitly combat current conditions of social inequality. Parable of the Sower focuses on Lauren finding a safe place for her and her friends to live while trying to develop and spread her own religion. Lauren is not defined only by her race, but at the same time Butler allows the readers to understand the ways in which race affects Lauren’s world. Through this, Butler once again is able to reenvision race relations in the future as still relevant and thereby change the popular notion of how science fiction defines the future.

Techno-Orientalism

While African Americans are too often pushed to the side in white discourses about the future, Asian Americans also find themselves embodying the stereotypes that the West has about the East in these texts. A large part of Techno-Orientalism concerns itself with the future.

However, nothing could be further from the truth. The discourse surrounding Techno- Pradheep 13

Orientalism primarily revolves around fears about an increasingly influential Asia. The creation of Dr. Fu Manchu by white author Sax Rohmer in 1913 is one of the earliest examples of Techno-Orientalism in literature (Sohn 1). Fu Manchu was the caricature of an evil Chinese genius who hoped to take over the West. Many a time, Fu Manchu’s characteristics were exaggerated to ridiculous lengths. Fu Manchu was a personification of ‘’ – a xenophobic term that encapsulated the idea that the east is a threat to the west. In addition to that,

Techno-Orientalism also “constructs Asians as… simulacra and maintains a prevailing sense of of the inhumanity of Asian labour – the very antithesis of Western liberal humanism” (Roh,

Huang, Niu 5). A mindless and robotic mass of Asians invading the West is the prevailing sentiment behind the origins of Techno-Orientalism, but as professor Stephen Hong Sohn posits,

“cultural representations did not emerge from a vacuum” (Sohn 1). Western anxiety about the

East began due to historical and economic reasons. Author Sidney Gulick wrote in his book in

1914 that “Japan’s amazing victory over Russia has raised doubts among white nations. The despised Asiatic, armed and drilled with Western , is a power that must be reckoned with…will surpass in power single white person, and it is accordingly a peril to the rest of the world” (Gulick 225). As part of wartime propaganda, the West vilified the East as a mindless horde that aimed to take over the western way of life. Unfortunately, this narrative became pervasive throughout the west thereby bolstering the assimilation of ideas like ‘yellow peril’ and

‘Techno-Orientalism’ into various works throughout the region.

Techno-Orientalism has not unanswered. Writers of color made sure to write back to the tropes of Techno-Orientalism. and Chang-Rae Lee are examples of authors who have actively used their writing as a platform to refute the stereotypes associated with yellow peril and Techno-Orientalism. Lee is an English professor at Stanford University and is Pradheep 14 also the author of five books. His novel, On Such a Full Sea, was a finalist for the NBCC and won the Heartland Fiction Page.

On Such a Full Sea is set 350 years in the future in Baltimore, now referred to as “B- mor.” America is divided into “Charter Villages,” labour settlements, and “open counties” which house the white elite, workers that provide food and other services to the Charter elite, and those that live a state of lawlessness and violence respectively. Lee’s novel follows the journey of , a Chinese American girl, who works as a diver in the fish . Fan’s boyfriend, Reg, happens to be the sole cancer-free resident of his labour settlement and is hence whisked away by scientists for study and experimentation. Fan leaves the safety of her settlement in order to search for her boyfriend, thereby traversing though the different sections of society for the first time.

In Lee’s novel, race plays a key role in the structuring of various factions of society. The novel mentions that the original residents of Baltimore were “descendants of nineteenth century

African slaves and twentieth century laborers from Central America,” a population who were eventually displaced by the immigrant laborers from (Lee 21). However, it is evident in the book that the Chinese immigrants no longer belong to just one race but are now of a mixed heritage with names such as James Beltran Ho, Pei-Pei Xu-Tidewater, and Reynolds Wang (Lee

22). Techno-Orientalism usually reduces Asians to the stereotypes and prejudices that exist about them. By portraying a population of mixed race Asians, Lee hopes to highlight the multi- dimensionality of Asian identities, detracting from having race be the sole component.

Furthermore, by including a mixed population, Lee allies Asian Americans with African

Americans and Latinos. Asian Americans are not type casted as evil mindless savages, such as how popular consistently depicted them historically. Instead, they are the side of the oppressed. Race is an important part of this dystopia and hence is a warning of what could Pradheep 15 happen if current inequalities continue. Another example of this is how these mixed race Asians choose to dress themselves. Reg, while being a Chinese American, also sports an afro as he is part African American. By portraying Reg as an Asian who is cognizant of his mixed race through his appearance, Lee is commenting on the idea of how Asians do not fit into the pre- defined box that Techno-Orientalism puts them in. Letting the toxic ideas perpetuated by

Techno-Orientalism fester aggressively disputing them can lead to potentially harmful repercussions for how the future is viewed. Lee helps combat these stereotypes by redefining the integration of race in his dystopian future.

Another common of Techno-Orientalism shows Asians content or happy with the position that they currently hold; they are shown as unidimensional with no wants or needs other than the stereotypical goal a collective domination of the West. However, in On Such a Full Sea, scholar Susan Thananopavarn notes that “the entire novel is framed as one of a community gaining gradual self awareness” (Thananopavarn 5). The labour settlement in this novel is content with their place as they are constantly comparing themselves with the open counties where the situation is considerably worse. However, after the story of Fan and Reg spreads, a lone of dissobedience follows when food is thrown into the lake thereby polluting the fish.

This triggers acts of and disobedience throughout the settlement. By characterizing

Asians as more than just a “mindless mass,” Lee effectively sheds on the fallacies of

Techno-Orientalism by redefining the concept of race in the future. Techno-Orientalism is reductive; it aims at lowering an entire race to just their stereotypes based on unfounded prejudices. By showing readers a future that challenges these stereotypes, authors such as Chang-

Rae Lee redefine race relations and hope to change the popular perception of Asians in the west.

Conclusion Pradheep 16

It is easy to dismiss science fictional texts as merely fun instruments to pass the time with. However, this notion betrays a lack of understanding of the power that such novels have.

Humans have advanced by leaps and bounds over the past few centuries with each new discovery propelling humans to even greater heights than before. Humans are only limited by their imagination and work towards achieving what they set out for. Science fiction has predicted a large number of these achievements – including traversing the floor, reaching the , and even exploring . While some of the more fanciful details of these novels, such as aliens and , have not been proven true yet, this does not mean that they are not a part of our near future. Ultimately, science fiction has the capacity to fuel our imagination. Humans use their imagination to shape the future. By neglecting vital aspects of race relations, white authors have systematically negatively affected the future that humans work towards. Both

Parable of the Sower and On Such a Full Sea are dystopian works. Both novels also act as warnings of what our society might regress to, if the current state of social inequality and race relations is allowed to deteriorate. If writers of color do not explore issues such as these in their novels there is less chance that these issues will ever be visited. Writers of color draw our attention to the persistent social effects of racism in a way that “race blind” texts do not. This lends to their immense importance as they help counter the lack of representation by people of color in science fiction texts. It is essential that these works are recognized if we want to have a society that is able to recognize that the future is not homogenous when it comes to people of different races. Movements such as Afrofuturism and writing back to the tropes of Techno-

Orientalism are just the first steps towards fixing this lack of representation. There is still a long way to go before the future that we envision for humankind is one where people of all races are given a fair share of representation. Pradheep 17

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