I have already established that nonwhites are as engaged in exploring the future as whites are; those science fiction publishers who choose to ignore this fact do so at their own peril. Greg Tate denies that science fiction's nonwhite readership is small; he quotes Milestone Media as identifying fifty percent of the sci-fi audience as nonwhite. Estimates, then, run from twenty-five to fifty percent, a sizeable chunk of the market indeed (Dery 207). Why science fiction continues to be portrayed or considered a "white" genre is an annoying mystery.
Science fiction provides not only great opportunities for analyzing constructions of gender, but also of class and race (Broderick 55). Several writers have risen to the task; the most prominent among them are Samuel R. Delany and Octavia Butler.
Samuel Delany is an award-winning author "who, while working in a genre long dominated by whites, brings to his speculative worlds a black presence and a subtle black perspective" (Govan 43). As previously mentioned, science fiction can be an especially subversive genre when it deals in the "humane" or "soft" science fields like politics and psychology; Delany uses these soft sciences and others like biology and anthropology to frame his speculative stories--hard machinery and technological devices are components of the settings but not the focus (Broderick 55, Govan 44). In many of his early works, it is striking enough that black characters are present in the story, whether as the hero or as more minor characters (Govan 45). Racial characteristics are "the least sign of difference"; color simply matters as a physical feature and provide no indication of any other inherent characteristic (Govan 46). Delany sought to create futurist visions in which race matters differently than it does presently, not necessarily visions in which it does not matter at all (Govan 46). While Delany's work falls outside of much of the black American literary tradition in that it rarely self-consciously preoccupies itself with racial issues, Delany "does give us memorable black characters, and his science-fiction novels affirm the diversity and vitality of black life" (Govan 48).
Octavia Butler offers a vision of what a black feminist future might look like, a vision seen all-too-infrequently in science fiction and in mainstream representations of speculative works. Her black heroines must overcome both racism and sexism to survive; "how a feminist science-fiction character responds to a male-dominated world is one thing; how Butler's black heroines respond to racist and sexist worlds is quite another" (Salvaggio 78). Butler's heroines generally must rely on "extraordinary mental facilities" to solve conflicts and to make their way through futuristic worlds (Salvaggio 78). Butler actually uses the experience of slavery as one of her plots (in Wild Seed), highlighting the science fiction horror of the situation, and interracial relationships (as in Patternmaster) can set the stage for Butler's head-on confrontations with racial and feminist issues (Salvaggio 79). Butler's heroines embody the qualities that diasporic blacks have had to rely upon for their survival in the New World: flexibility, mental strength, determination, and subversion and resistance. Her heroines also rarely co-opt male models of power and aggression to solve problems; on the contrary, flexibility and the willingness to turn initial obstacles "into real avenues of liberation" usually save the day (Salvaggio 80). Butler creates worlds in which the heroes do not need to destroy or separate to make a better world; instead, her heroines hold their ground, staying put and using other strategies with the goal of preserving and healing. "They are heroines not because they conquer the world, but because they conquer the very notion of tyranny" (Salvaggio 81). Furthermore, Butler's heroines suggest the possibility of those bonds of affinity for which Haraway longs. Using "species transformation," like Tiptree, Butler does not make enemy out of the alien or the other (Barr 100). Butler's futuristic visions are the result of a conscious effort to provide more encouraging possibilities for both women and people of color in science fiction (Salvaggio 78).
Barr, Marleen. Lost in Space: Probing Feminist Science Fiction and Beyond. Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press, 1993.
Broderick, Damien. Reading By Starlight: Postmodern Science Fiction. London: Routledge, 1995.
Dery, Mark. Flame Wars:The Discourse of Cyberculture. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 1994.
Govan, Sandra Y. "The Insistent Presence of Black Folk in the Novels of Samuel R. Delany." Black American Literature Forum 18:2. Terre Haute: Indiana State University, 1984. 43-48.
Salvaggio, Ruth. "Octavia Butler and the Black Science-Fiction Heroine." Black American Literature Forum. 78-81.