Growing up during the ‘60s and ‘70s, I was an avid fan of speculative science fiction (which I still love today). However, as a young black person, it was rare to find central characters who were black, and plots that related to black history and possible black futures. It was difficult to find me in what I was reading. I read and reread the work of black sci-fi writers such as Samuel “Chip” Delaney, and Octavia Butler.
Young people today have far more options with the rise of Afrofuturism, which is well-covered in Ytasha L. Womack’s Afrofuturism: The World of Black Sci-Fi and Fantasy Culture.
I thought about this a few weeks ago when I saw this tweet from Jelani Cobb:
Some of the responses to it referenced Octavia Butler and Professor Derrick Bell’s short story “The Space Traders.” The blogger Abagond describes “The Space Traders” in a post from 2010:
“The Space Traders” (1992) is a short story written by Derrick Bell, science fiction fan and professor of constitutional law. It is a thought experiment: what if space traders came from another star and offered to buy all the black people in America?
It is set in America in the near future:
- The government is nearly broke.
- The oil and coal are almost gone.
- The air is unfit to breathe by the old and sick – they have to wear masks.
- Civil rights laws have been overturned.
- Most blacks are poor, walled off in ghettos under armed guard.
The Space Traders arrive, offering:
- Enough gold to settle America’s debts and make it a rich country again.
- Machines that can produce cheap, clean power.
- Chemicals to clean the air.
In exchange for:
- All the black people in America.
Here’s Jelani’s full Twitter thread:
As a way to measure people’s optimism or pessimism I sometimes ask black people what percentage of white Americans they think would, in a completely anonymous ballot, vote to deport every last one of us. I expected people to guess 30-40%.
The average estimate is around 80... 🇺🇸
It occurs to me, though, the really interesting thing would be to ask white people what percentage of white people they believe would anonymously vote to deport every African American in this country.
No, I’m not going to do a twitter poll on this question. That would defeat the purpose. But as a thought exercise I find it really interesting.
For those who don’t know the reference other people are making, the legal scholar Derrick Bell wrote a collection of short stories called Faces at the Bottom of the Well in 1993. It included a story called “The Space Traders,” in which aliens wanted America’s black people.
The crux of the story was about whether America would sell black people back into slavery in order to gain riches from these alien creatures. It inspired my question, which is not whether white people would do this but what black people think white people would do.
On that note... Happy Thanksgiving!
*We should poll Native Americans on the expulsion question next.
One last point: I’m constantly struck by the fact that Abraham Lincoln thought DEEPLY about deporting black people, 200k of whom were fighting on his side in the Civil War. You know who he never considered deporting?
The Confederates who were actually trying to kill him
It was interesting reading the responses, such as this one:
There were objections; there were people who related racism only to Trump voters; and there were a few white people who flipped the story, wishing all white folks would be taken instead. Though Cobb decided not to do a poll, I’ve included one at the bottom of this piece, though it is in no way scientific. I’m curious about what Daily Kos readers think.
For those of you who have never read “The Space Traders,” — here’s a link to Bell’s original short story: The Space Traders
The jaw of every one of the welcoming officials dropped, not a word of the many speeches they had prepared suitable for the occasion. As the Americans stood in stupefied silence, the visitors' leader emphasized that the proposed trade was for the Americans freely to accept or not, that no force would be used. Neither then nor subsequently did the leader or any other of the visitors, whom anchorpersons on that evening's news shows immediately labeled the "SpaceTraders," reveal why they wanted only black people or what plans they had for them should the United States be prepared to part with that or any other group of its citizens. The leader only reiterated to his still-dumbfounded audience that, in exchange for the treasure they had brought, they wanted to take away every American categorized as black on birth certificate or other official identification. The Space Traders said they would wait sixteen days for a response to their offer. That is, on 17 January-the day when in that year the birthday of Martin Luther King, Jr., was to be observed-they would depart carrying with them every black man, woman, and child in the nation and leave behind untold treasure.
“The Space Traders“ was adapted for television in 1994 by director Reginald Hudlin and writer Trey Ellis. It was part of the HBO anthology Cosmic Slop, made up of three sci-fi stories told from a black perspective.
If you have not read Bell’s seminal work Faces at the Bottom of the Well, you should.
The classic work on American racism and the struggle for racial justice
In Faces at the Bottom of the Well, civil rights activist and legal scholar Derrick Bell uses allegory and historical example to argue that racism is an integral and permanent part of American society. African American struggles for equality are doomed to fail so long as the majority of whites do not see their own well-being threatened by the status quo. Bell calls on African Americans to face up to this unhappy truth and abandon a misplaced faith in inevitable progress. Only then will blacks, and those whites who join with them, be in a position to create viable strategies to alleviate the burdens of racism. "Freed of the stifling rigidity of relying unthinkingly on the slogan 'we shall overcome,'" he writes, "we are impelled both to live each day more fully and to examine critically the actual effectiveness of traditional civil rights remedies."
With a new foreword by Michelle Alexander, Faces at the Bottom of the Well is urgent and essential reading on the problem of racism in America.
Linda Greenhouse reviewed it for The New York Times:
In Derrick Bell's view, discourse about race in America is mired in the sugarcoated myth that equality for blacks will be found just around the corner, as soon as the country completes its fitful but inevitably progressive journey toward enlightenment and justice. The myth is sweet but ultimately disabling and dangerous, he believes, because it denies to both blacks and whites understanding of a truth that is almost exactly the opposite: that racism is not a passing phase but a permanent feature of American life, and that the path is marked not by real progress but by occasional short-lived judicial or legislative victories that serve to obscure the underlying truth even more.
Both in his writing and by his actions, Mr. Bell, one of the country's most prominent scholars of race and the law, has spent years trying to bring this message both to other blacks and to the white-majority institutions in which he has worked. Most notable of these is Harvard Law School, where, more than 20 years ago, he became the first black faculty member to receive tenure. Two years ago he vowed to remain on an unpaid leave until the law school hired a black woman for its tenured faculty. In July, Harvard Law School refused to extend his leave for a third year and informed him that his failure to return meant he had relinquished his position on the faculty, which still includes no tenured black women. He is currently a visiting professor at New York University Law School.
Without directly addressing this episode, Mr. Bell's new book, "Faces at the Bottom of the Well: The Permanence of Racism," nonetheless makes it appear not only understandable but almost inevitable. Like his previous book, "And We Are Not Saved: The Elusive Quest for Racial Justice," this one approaches his theme indirectly, through allegory, fables and dialogues with a fictional "lawyer-prophet," a mordantly wise black woman named Geneva Crenshaw, whose role is to goad and inspire the professor-narrator to confront the truth without the sugarcoating.
Jon Elson wrote:
In an interview at his office at New York University Law School, Mr. Bell said that when he explains his thoughts on race to black groups these days, he hears the laughter and applause of recognition. "It reaffirms that it is not their fault," he said. "It is an affirmation of themselves and not a basis for despair."
The 61-year-old author said he reached his bleak conclusions over the course of a career in civil rights that he now believes was misdirected. Despite all the change over the years, he said, blacks are worse off and more subjugated than at any time since slavery. The only difference now is that there is "a more effective, more sophisticated means of domination."
But he also believes in the importance of struggling anyway. He has fought many such battles himself, the most recent being his protest against the absence of a black woman on the Harvard Law School faculty. On June 30, his 23-year tenure there was revoked after he refused to end a two-year leave of absence.
Keep in mind that all of his commentary was before Trump. Professor Bell died on Oct. 5, 2011. He was 80 years old.
Who is the REAL Derrick Bell? A biography. The YouTube description of the video reads,
This video tribute was created in honor of Professor Derrick Bell and in recognition of his unparalleled career as a civil rights attorney, legal scholar, professor and political activist. It was produced to honor Professor Bell's memory and his legacy by his wife, Janet Dewart Bell, his "adopted daughter" and former student, Lisa Marie Boykin (writer/producer/director) and Mark T. Chapman (editor/producer). The Black, Latino, Asian Pacific American Law Alumni Association (BLAPA) at NYU School of Law and the Harvard Law School also provided generous support."Everyone talks about justice, but it is those who have known it the least who believe in it the most." Professor Derrick Bell
Take some time to listen to him.
Back to the issue of what many black people think about what white folks really feel about us when they are not in front of us. Some readers may wonder why Jelani’s tweet struck a chord. Our awareness of racism and white supremacy predates not only Trump, but all of recent history.
A current example:
Kimberlé Crenshaw, who along with Bell developed Critical Race Theory (CRI), and who coined the term “intersectionality,” cites Bell when looking at the history of Reconstruction:
As we move into another election, as we wait to watch the Republican Party acquit the current racist resident of the White House, as we look at a Democratic debate with zero black faces at the podium, does it surprise you that many of us have very little faith in the ability of white folks to dismantle a system of their own making, and little trust that y’all will get it right anytime soon?
The irony in all of this is that we soldier on. Hoping that in the future it may change, and you may change, even if we don’t live to see it.