When we imagine the future, we inevitably include aspects of race, and all of the tropes and indications that go along with that, whether a diverse cast of characters is present or not. Earlier in this course we explored works where Blackness, Whiteness, and Asianess/Technorietnalism, all monolithic, clear cut ideas about a group of people, were present. However, there are many groups of people that fall out of these clear cut categories, most especially biracial and multiracial characters. In the future what exactly does it mean to be biracial or multiracial? Does “race” even mean the same thing in a future where we find a wide range of peoples with a diverse array of racial backgrounds, or does something else became more important such as the ideas of ethnicity, social class, nationality, language, and religion? Within these new ideas are there groups that fall out of the easy boundaries just like those with multiracial backgrounds?
To explore this topic I will be looking at Postmodern Eugenics: The Future of Reproductive and Racial Thinking in Science Fiction, Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson, and Nova by Samuel R. Delany.
The future will not be devoid of race and ethnicity, as the Time Magazine cover mentioned in Kustritz’s article would try to have us believe with it’s “lightly tanned” American. In two science fiction novels we have two worlds that have very different racial climates; one where racial differences very much exist among a landscape of a fractured country (Snow Crash) and another where many characters have diverse, multiracial backgrounds (Nova). However within these world’s we observe the existence of “ethnicity” that seem to have fallen through the cracks of the society’s tendency to easily categorize people whether it be by nationality or “franchise”, race, economic status. By understanding the representations of the multiracial identity, and the ethnicities or groups of people that fall into the uncategorizable portions of society, we can further understand what it means to be a multiracial person in the present.
Michael Randolph
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