Black and Brown Planets: The Politics of Race in Science Fiction

259 Pages·2014·5.33 MB·English

by  Isiah Lavender

Black and Brown Planets

Black and
Brown Planets
•  •  •
The Politics of Race in Science Fiction
Edited by Isiah Lavender III
University Press of Mississippi / Jackson
www.upress.state.ms.us
The University Press of Mississippi is a member
of the Association of American University Presses.
Frontis image by Jaz C. Alexander
Copyright © 2014 by University Press of Mississippi
All rights reserved
Manufactured in the United States of America
Edward James, “Yellow, Black, Metal, and Tentacled: The Race Question in American
Science Fiction” was originally published in Science Fiction, Social Conflict, and War,
edited by Philip John Davies. Used by permission of Manchester University Press.
First printing 2014
∞
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Black and brown planets : the politics of race in science fiction / edited by Isiah Lavender III.
pages cm
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-1-62846-123-7 (hardback) — ISBN 978-1-62846-124-4 (ebook) 1. Science fiction,
American—History and criticism. 2. Race in literature. 3. Minorities in literature. I. Lavender,
Isiah, editor.
PS374.S35B55 2014
813’.08762093529—dc23 2014010170

British Library Cataloging-in-Publication Data available
Contents
vii Acknowledgments
3 Introduction: Coloring Science Fiction
Isiah Lavender III
Part one. Black Planets

15 The Bannekerade: Genius, Madness, and Magic in Black
Science Fiction
Lisa Yaszek
31 “The Best Is Yet to Come”; or, Saving the Future: Star Trek:
Deep Space Nine as Reform Astrofuturism
De Witt Douglas Kilgore
48 Far beyond the Star Pit: Samuel R. Delany
Gerry Canavan
65 Digging Deep: Ailments of Difference in Octavia Butler’s
“The Evening and the Morning and the Night”
Isiah Lavender III
83 The Laugh of Anansi: Why Science Fiction Is Pertinent to
Black Children’s Literature Pedagogy
Marleen S. Barr
Part two. Brown Planets

101 Haint Stories Rooted in Conjure Science: Indigenous Scientific
Literacies in Andrea Hairston’s Redwood and Wildfire
Grace L. Dillon
vi Contents
117 Questing for an Indigenous Future: Leslie Marmon Silko’s
Ceremony as Indigenous Science Fiction
Patrick B. Sharp
131 Monteiro Lobato’s O presidente negro (The Black President):
Eugenics and the Corporate State in Brazil
M. Elizabeth Ginway
146 Mestizaje and Heterotopia in Ernest Hogan’s High Aztech
Lysa M. Rivera
163 Virtual Reality at the Border of Migration, Race, and Labor
Matthew Goodwin
177 A Dis-(Orient)ation: Race, Technoscience, and The Windup Girl
Malisa Kurtz
195 Reflections on “Yellow, Black, Metal, and Tentacled,” Twenty-Four
Years On
Edward James
199 Yellow, Black, Metal, and Tentacled: The Race Question in
American Science Fiction
Edward James
coda

225 “The Wild Unicorn Herd Check-In”: The Politics of Race in
Science Fiction Fandom
Robin Anne Reid
241 Contributors
245 Index
Acknowledgments
First and foremost, I must thank God for providing me with the ambition
and requisite skills to see this collection to fruition. Second, I thank my wife,
Heather, for all of her love, support, prayer, and sacrifice; my sons, Kingsley
and Frazier; and my sister, Melissa, for their patience with me. Though I have
certainly learned that editing a collection is not at all easy, I am grateful to
all of the contributors for the trust they placed in me, for their willingness to
revise, and for taking this journey with me. I especially appreciate the advice
and additional help offered by Gerry Canavan and Lisa Yaszek.
The idea for this collection originated at the 2010 International Conference
of the Fantastic in the Arts, where I moderated a panel, “Black and/or Brown
Planets: Politics and Race in Science Fiction,” that featured Grace Dillon, David
Higgins, De Witt Kilgore, and Patrick Sharp. I am very grateful to these panel-
ists as well as to the audience members who came to listen to their erudition.
Likewise, I am indebted to Rachel Haywood Ferreira for spreading the word
about the call for papers. I deeply regret not being able to include several more
essays by Henri-Simon Blanc-Hoang, Biling Chen, Wei Ming Dariotis, Sharon
DeGraw, Uppinder Mehan, and Takayuki Tatsumi. I can only hope they accept
my heartfelt apology and perhaps a meal when our paths next cross.
I am also grateful to Brian Attebery for helping me refine my own Butler
essay as well as to Dale Knickerbocker and Jen Parrack for pointing out the
obvious regarding Butler’s character, Beatrice Alcantara. I would be remiss
not to express my thanks to my old UCA colleagues—Chuck Bane, Dwayne
Coleman, Sonya Fritz, Lori Leavell, David O’Hara, and Wayne Stengel—for
listening to me drone on and on about the challenges of editing. I must also
thank UCA for providing the time necessary to complete the first draft of this
project with a Fall 2012 sabbatical.
Likewise, I have nothing but gratitude toward my new LSU colleagues—
Chris Barrett, Michael Bibler, Lauren Coats, Brannon Costello, Jennifer Davis,
Daren Dean, Angeletta Gourdine, Benjy Kahan, Gerry Kennedy, Phillip
Maciak, Michelle Massé, Elsie Mitchie, Rick Moreland, Anna Nardo, Daniel
Novak, Lisi Oliver, and Irina Shport—for showing an immediate interest in
my work.
vii
viii Acknowledgments
I am also thankful to Manchester University Press for giving Edward
James permission to reprint his foundational essay, “Yellow, Black, Metal,
and Tentacled: The Race Question in American Science Fiction,” which first
appeared in Philip John Davies, ed., Science Fiction, Social Conflict, and War
(1990): 26–49. His essay appears here in virtually identical form.
Finally, I am particularly grateful to the University Press of Mississippi.
Walter Biggins believed in the project, Vijay Shah helped me see it through,
Katie Keene kept me on schedule, and Ellen Goldlust was an amazing
copyeditor.
Black and Brown Planets