More mixing in sci-fi
JC
Carmen and I have been talking a lot about sci-fi lately — check out our last episode of Addicted to Race! Well, here’s a new sci-fi story from Tobias Buckell, a writer of mixed heritage. His first novel is called Crystal Rain. As Lima News explains, the book takes a look at a future community that may be just ahead for us — one that is extremely diverse, where there is a lot of mixing culturally and ethnically.
Buckell, 27, was born in Grenada and grew up there and in the U.S. Virgin Islands. Now manager of the technology center at Bluffton University, he describes himself as a futurist, meaning he is “obsessed with what’s coming over the horizon.” In that connection, he cites a population projection that within a few decades, Caucasians will cease to be a majority in the United States.
His fictional land of Nanagada is a rich mix of colors, cultures and ethnicities. One character describes Capital City as a place “where everyone around you sounds different from everyone else.” “Crystal Rain” is set in the far future, but it could be our world in the near future.
Buckell then goes on to share his thoughts on being mixed race.
“I grew up looking white, but I’m actually multicultural, biracial,” explained Buckell, the son of a Granadian father and a British expatriate mother. “I grew up looking white, but I identified as being Caribbean, mixed-blood. That’s always been my identity, and until I came up to the States, that was never really challenged. Here people get offended that I would look white but identify as something else.”
In a culture that tends to categorize people as either black or white, Buckell sometimes feels he is not fully accepted anywhere. “I feel constantly like the odd man out,” he said.
Then he considered briefly and added, “Which is a great place to be as a writer, I suppose.”
Lyonside wrote:
You guys are making my geeky sci-fi heart glad.
With almost all sci-fi TV/movies about white people with occassional token minority actors (bonus points if the tokens are actually playing humans), it’s great to remember that book-verses show much needed diversity.
Posted 09 Feb 2006 at 9:57 am ¶
Robert Reed wrote:
With regards to matters related to race, science fiction is usually ahead of the curve. It is very rare that a science fiction future is full of racism. Now, blacks characters are still few and far between in much of the sci-fi that is made, but when portrayed, are usually portrayed as no different from white people.
Keep in mind that the first interracial kiss on television was on a sci-fi show, in a Star Trek episode of the 1960s. Interracial relationships on sci-fi shows are now rare when there are minority characters being portrayed. The Matrix did have plenty of minorities. In fact, the masses of the series seem to be very well mixed.
Science fiction reveals how people view their future. The bad thing is that science fiction is mostly white. However, there is still a sizable number of minorities. Science fiction portrays a color-blind future and racial equality.
Posted 09 Feb 2006 at 7:14 pm ¶
Lyonside wrote:
>Science fiction reveals how people view their future. The bad thing is that science fiction is mostly white. However, there is still a sizable number of minorities. Science fiction portrays a color-blind future and racial equality.
WOW. If sizable means “no more than one token character in no more than 2 minority groups per show,” then sure, it’s sizable. And again, often the minority is also an alien. Meaning that the paradigm for average human remains one of European descent.
The problem is the limited acting pool, I acknowledge this (especially as most of the sci-fi/speculative shows I watch are filmed in Vancouver). But it is FAR from colorblind; I think w/ the best of intentions, most (excluding the Matrix and Pitch Black [note, in which not 1 but TWO visible minorities survive]) visual sci-fi avoids the race issue by ignoring race completely. The future is always mighty pale.
Books are a different critter, in that sometimes in fantasy/sci-fi/speculative fiction, you don’t get or need physical character descriptions, so there is room for interpretation… that said, why is the paperback illustration always of a Caucasian person, sometimes with a tan?
Posted 10 Feb 2006 at 10:59 am ¶