Though we like to use the term “post-racial” to describe our current dynamics, it seems the science fiction pieces so far suggest that a society truly past race must have another distinguishing feature to connect people. In Lathe of Heaven, we saw the loss of all race, then the introduction of turtle-like aliens to distract pure humans from fighting each other. In Children of Men, the invented new category was fugees; in Dawn, the Oankali. Now in Red Mars, a distinguishing factor is the new label of Martian.

If science fiction is viewed as a critique of modern society, as Frederic Jameson argued, then Kim Stanley Robinson’s view is a more positive spin on the value of new labels. Rather than the other labels we have encountered, the Martian label does not exist in opposition of another identity. It is an identity that bonded the first hundred that superseded their other identities (ethnicity, nationality, gender) while still allowing them to hold the other identities. The new identification could be added on top of other understandings of their selves, rather than boiling the group down to their basest and most primitive identity (not turtle, not immigrant, not oankali). Instead of suggesting that humans must move beyond race by introducing a threat to overcome, Robinson’s work suggests that giving a common goal to humans could make progress in race relations. Labels, including race, let people build relationships, but can we subvert the power of race to divide with the power of a new label that could bond us together? Instead of letting racial tension escalate in an environment of fear, could race dynamics be improved by distracting people with a distinct goal?