Race, Colonialism, and

Science Fiction
1. Race in science fiction

Representation
of raced other

Alien/
non-white
immigrant

non-English
speaking)
2. Race in science fiction

How science
and
technology
can be USED
by non-
hegemonic
societies
How science and
technology affect
non-hegemonic
societies/individuals
3. Race in science fiction

Narration from the

perspective of a
non-white, non-
hegemonic, non
American
individual/population
Why is race not represented in
scifi?
Tradition from
Astounding
science and
other
magazines

It reflects the
Focus on
tradition of
technology
literature and
and science as
culture in
“neutral”
general
 Recurring issues explored
• Physical diversity

• Cultural diversity

• Speech/language

• Ethnicity and traditions

 chronology
• 1960-70 human right/anti-racist movement
• 1967 Teatro Campesino (Chicana Culture)
• 1974 Sun Ra and his Arkestra featured in “Space is
the Place” (Afro-American culture)
• 1987 Gloria Evangelina Anzaldúa
• 1990-on Guillermo Gomez Pena
• 1994 Mark Dery (defined Afrofuturism)
 Chicana-futurism 1987
-Narrates colonial and postcolonial histories of
"indigenismo", "mestizaje", hegemony, and
survival.
-how chicano/chicana are
1. alienated from technologies

2. have to work with/are affected by them

 Borderland /la Frontera
Gloria Evangelina Anzaldúa (1987)

"new mestiza" = individual aware of her

conflicting and meshing identities and uses
these "new angles of vision" to challenge
binary thinking in the Western World
Guillermo Gomez Pena
 Afrofuturism 1994

Mark Dery : “Mainstream science fiction takes

inspiration from things that are going on in
society, but often does not include the
viewpoint of those in the African Diaspora. In
the spirit of filling in this gap, the artists and
writers in the Afro-futurist tradition seek to
include us in the future settings that we are
often left out of."
 What is it?
Asks the
questions:

How can we How would science

name/renmane and technology be if
technologies using they were
our own mother- invented/explored
tongue? by our people?

How can we rewrite the

origin story of the
African American
people using the
science fiction genre?
 The Midnight Robber

• Synthesis of different
genres

• Hybrid language
(creole)
The Midnight Robber

Positive,
motherly role of
technology

Technology
Technology of
Renaming of disappearance
technologies makes the
(Nanny Grammy, diasporic body
nansi web) reappear
Triangular Trade
 Carnival culture

• http://www.tntisland.com/carnivalcharac
ters.html

• http://www.tntisland.com/folklore.html
 Trinidad & Tobago Myths
1. Douen: lost souls of children that had not
yet been baptized or christened.

2. Eshu messenger between human and

divine worlds, Undergod of duality,
crossroads and beginnings, and also a
phallic and fertility Undergod.