3 Responses so far

1. 1. Steve Buchheit on Mar 1st, 2008 at 1:56 pm

   Very Mellow Toby, sounds like a mixed drink.

2. 2. bradski on Mar 11th, 2008 at 1:07 pm

   I read your article on Angry Black Woman and enjoyed it. As a mixed-race American with brown skin, I shared the same feelings as you as a child looking for “non-white” characters in science fiction, literature and film.

   When I found your work, I felt very good. Besides yourself, Steve Barnes, Minister Faust, Tanarive Due and a few others, there aren’t many sci-fi/fantasy novelists of color in flesh or mind. Steve Barnes was the most well known science fiction author and I couldn’t find any others except Samuel Delany, and his works were not my cup of tea.

   As a kid, I enjoyed reading some of Robert Heinlein’s books but there were no African-descended people, mixed-race or not who had positive presence in his work. I recall one book Heinlein wrote where a psychic African-American referred to his mother as “mammy.” For godsake, only a white American who had no connection with colored folks of that era would think they would call their mother “mammy.”

   Then, I had the misfortune of reading “Farnham’s Freehold” and became sickened and angered. A future where Africans control the world and dine on pork and human flesh. The worst stereotypes were alive on the page before me. Not a fun thing for a 14-year-old.

   Although later I would learn that some considered “Farnham..” to be playing with racist themes, it didn’t feel that way to my teen self. I wanted sci-fi like Star Trek but where the non-white and mixed-race folks could be heroic leading figures.
   (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Farnham’s_Freehold)

   Most sci-fi, even a lot generated today, projects forward a white dominated world where people of color still play minor or background roles. If they are in heroic roles, they seem to now play Worf/Teal’c/Ronan character, a revitalized noble savage/warrior. Other than Captain Sisko, I can’t think of another significant man of color who has played a significant part in sci-fi until recently.

   Then there are the portrayals of women of color in sci-fi that seem to represent a cross between Suzy Wong and Xena Warrior Princess–over sexualized warrior/body guard.

   Strangely, it seems that mystery novels have been able to create to better people of color. James Patterson’s Alex Cross novels are a sensation. Walter Mosley’s Eazy Rawlins novels have done incredibly well.

   Going back to your description of yourself of a white-looking mixed-race person, maybe you could be the science fiction version of August Wilson? Like yourself, Wilson was a white-looking mixed-race man, although he self-identified as African-American.

   On a side note, I read your comment on Steve Barnes’ posting on Barack Obama. What occurred to me just now is how similar the three of you are in terms of being mixed-race and the struggle that you all have had in finding a way to fit into the world just as August Wilson and Walter Mosley had to also. All five of you are mixed-race with unique experiences based on race and color.

   All four of you have used writing to tell your story and express your ideas on race and identity. As your body of literature increases, I wonder if some graduate student will one day write a comparative analysis of you, Barnes, Mosley, Wilson and others in terms of how racial identity shaped your work.

3. 3. Tobias Buckell on Mar 17th, 2008 at 4:43 pm

   Brad, thank you very much for the comment and thoughts!