Sunday, May 11, 2014

White Space: We are More Than Lieutenant Uhura. Where are the Black and Brown People on BBC's Series 'The Real History of Science Fiction'?


Have you been watching the BBC's miniseries The Real History of Science Fiction?

It is a serviceable, basic, and at times entertaining exploration of the "science fiction" genre that does not insult the average viewer, all the while leaving the more expert and inside audience member unfulfilled and likely annoyed--but still interested as the show encourages the latter to feel smart while yelling at the TV screen.

Thus, The Real History of Science Fiction is the very definition (and problem) of high brow popular culture.

I trust that I am not alone in this habit, but as I watched the first three episodes of The Real History of Science Fiction, I found myself counting the number of writers, actors, and expert commentators who are featured on the show and that are not white (The Real History of Science Fiction is marginally better in terms of including white women--but one of those writers is the obligatory Ursula K. Le Guin).

How many people of color are on The Real History of Science Fiction as of the third episode?

Four.

Of course, The Real History of Science Fiction includes Nichelle Nichols and Zoe Saldana as the two obligatory versions of Star Trek's indispensable character Nyota Uhura. Edward James Olmos is also interviewed because of his Battlestar Galactica and Blade Runner pedigree. Michio Kaku, physicist, was an expert guest.

Historically, "mainstream" science fiction has been, and remains, a very "white" imaginary.

As we discussed after my experience going to 2012's Worldcon--which was held here in Chicago and that the kind readers of WARN offered up money so that I could attend--for all of its high-minded visions of the future and progress, much of what counts as "mainstream" sci-fi has historically been, and remains, a near exclusive playground for white men, and where the Other (not aliens or robots, but "real" Others, i.e. black and brown folks, gays and lesbians, etc.) are tolerated and/or feted as curiosities who exist on the margins of the genre.

The Real History of Science Fiction is an example of how the idea of "canon", i.e the required "serious" work written by "serious" people that all "serious" students should learn and model themselves after, and that the public embraces as "important" because someone who is "smart" told them so, perpetuates "unintentional" white supremacy (as well as sexism, homophobia, and other types of discrimination).

"The canon" is the result of a type of path dependent decision-making that normalizes the world as seen from the perspective of the in-group--while ignoring the foundational question(s) of how disparities of Power have naturalized what is understood by them (and some others) to be commonsense, matter of fact, taken for granted, reality.

I love my "Dead White Male" authors. I also know that my "Dead White Male" authors do not represent the sum total of human knowledge and expertise on a given subject.

The notion of a science fiction canon as superficially represented by BBC's The Real History of Science Fiction reflects how an insular creative community, in a segregated society, one that for too long resisted allowing those who are not white and male to contribute to it, put up boundaries around its own philosophical enterprise and intellectual mission.

Perhaps I have softened in my relative old age: for me, youthful fire has been replaced by kindling embers that are hot and sustained. I do not believe that the writers and producers of BBC's The Real History of Science Fiction were operating with intentional racial malice. To the contrary, I would bet money that they believe themselves to be forward thinking, good people. In looking to the future and science fiction, the writers and producers of The Real History of Science Fiction did not critically interrogate their own thinking and the final product it produced.

[Stated differently. Did the creators of The Real History of Science Fiction ever ask themselves how "real" is this "real history" of science fiction that we are offering to the public?]

One of the greatest dangers of life in a segregated society is that the group in power, they who are defined as "normal", actually believe that said status is an accurate description of their relative relationship to other people. Here, white privilege is an internalized belief that one's own dominance and superiority is earned and natural, as opposed to a reflection of "a particular arrangement of things" that is neither natural nor right.

It is probable that none of the insiders put their foot down after watching a prerelease copy of The Real History of Science Fiction and said that "something is very wrong here, why is everyone, for the most part, white?"

The creators of The Real History of Science Fiction should not have made the above intervention because of a warm and fuzzy commitment to diversity. Rather, such a protest should have occurred in the interest of making the best possible show about the "history of science fiction".

I have little faith in altruism: selfishness and material self-interest can be used as weapons against prejudice, racism, and other types of bigotry.

If you were a consultant on BBC's The Real History of Science Fiction, what non-white (and non-male) authors and other creative types would you have included on the show?

31 comments:

gwoman said...

Octavia Butler, Tananarive Due, Nalo Hopkinson, Steven Barnes, and Samuel Delaney come to mind.

Elly said...

I haven't been watching the series, but - based on your description - it sounds like a show that John C. Wright (among other authors pining for the "golden age" of SFF) would love.

Dunno if you've been following the latest SFF eruption, but here's a summary - http://fozmeadows.wordpress.com/2014/05/07/silence-is-not-synonymous-with-uproar-a-response-to-john-c-wright/

Courtney H said...

Speaking of Lt. Uhura, this is a hoot:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=Max8UvHgDds

chauncey devega said...

Those fights are something else. Sci-fi is "theirs" I guess. What pitiable people w. low self-esteem.

chauncey devega said...

Butler and Delaney's absence--if with some other folks talking about them or using older footage was just odd. Butler would be an obvious choice.

Elly said...

The concern trolls are just as bad, IMHO - http://nkjemisin.com/2013/12/concern-trolling-and-gratuitous-diversity/.

The arrogance that Jemisin highlights blows my mind. Who the hell are Savage or Davidson to judge when diversity is "gratuitous" or "not genuine"?

Scopedog said...

Agreed.

What is also missing from TRHOSF is, well, any acknowledgement of science fiction that wasn't European or American. Sure, they spoke about Godzilla, but why not look into Japanese SF, such as writers like Komatsu or Kambayashi; after all, there is an upcoming major Hollywood
film that is based on a Japanese SF novel (EDGE OF TOMORROW). You would think that someone would notice.

Scopedog said...

"Sci-fi is "theirs" I guess." Yep. And how dare anyone else take part....


Some months ago, a client I was doing some artwork for wrote me an e-mail about his experiences with some SF fans; it clearly wasn't a good one because he ended it with, "Why are SF fans so close-minded?"


The truth is, sadly, that some are, which is ironic since they usually bray on about how _open-minded_ they are because they read or watch SF.

chauncey devega said...

What about Latin and South America too? They only have so many episodes, but they could have had some other non-white, not European/Americans mentioned.

Buddy H said...

Also, so many of the early to mid-20th century white sci-fi writers held such virulent racist views which seeped into their work, and which modern-day fans try to wave away with the "it was the times; everyone held those views back then" excuse. Well, no, not everyone held those views back then. Some of my favorite writers of the 1920s and 30s were outspoken against injustice.
Even the illustrators... as a teenager, I used to marvel at the art of Frank Frazetta, then years later looked back and saw his heroes were nordic, and his enemies had dusky, southern european and african features.

Scopedog said...

Good point--and while I love Frazetta's work (being an illustrator myself), his early work from the 1950s....yep, the "bad guys" had the features you described.

I don't know if you've ever seen it, but the STAR TREK: DEEP SPACE NINE episode "Beyond The Farthest Star" tackles SF writing back in the1950s, where Sisko finds himself in the guise of an African-American science fiction writer working for a major SF magazine back in the 1950s. Not only was that episode one of the best of TREK, but it's probably (in my view) one of the best episodes I've seen on television.


I still have no idea what inspired writer Marc Scott Zicree to pen the episode, but maybe it doesn't matter in the long run--it's a fantastic story.

Scopedog said...

That's certainly true. An additional episode could have helped.


The fact that we're seeing a good deal of non-Western SF being translated into English--especially from Japan and South America--shows that attention should be paid to this...but the spotlight hasn't shifted there yet.


(I suppose I'm biased, I guess--I've read some of the Japanese SF that's been translated--both the "literary" and the "light novels"--and quite a few of the titles have been fantastic.)

Black Sci-Fi said...

Hollywood and publishing are very, VERY competitive. It doesn't take much for one to pay lip-service to multiculturalism yet operate within the confines of white supremacy as the defacto work environment.

I'm tired of "whining" about POC being left out of popular culture and history. The list of SF authors, screenwriters, producers and directors is the best kept secret in America for a reason....competition. A boycott won't work because we won't really affect the bottom line.

Unless and until we as POC constantly educate our people and finance, produce, publish and promote our own creative genius and vision of the future then nothing will change. Propaganda is a tool for securing power. We have been and will continue to be defined by those who choose to render us "non-competitive".

It is WAR by other means. And, quite simply, we are all talk and Tyler Perry minstrel shows being see as an "acceptable" art for that serves to underscore our "otherness". It's simply a matter of self respect.

Our contributions to music are widely acknowledged and accepted by the larger (white) society because it is seen as "non-myth busting" and "non-threatening" to the reality of "soft fascism" practiced in the USA and most of Europe. POC are supposed to "entertain" Ol Massa.

But, science fiction is considered the realm of "DEEP THINKING" to which we as POC have been marginalized. Forecasting the future is projecting power and group dominance. Despite all attempts to whitewash the cultural conceit, whites do not like seeing "others" define their future. And, majority audiences prefer to see people that look like them in roles of power. They also prefer to see POC in roles of subjugation and in need of white salvation.

This is propaganda disguised as entertainment. And, POC, willingly pay for our own debasement as we anxiously pay for cable TV and movies that follow the historical trends of white supremacy and “soft“ facism. I am reminded of the brainwashing scene from "A Clockwork Orange". We, POC, put ourselves in the torture chair and complain because it hurts. The answer, of course, is not to get in the chair in the first place.

Shady Grady said...

Discussion should have included Charles Saunders, Samuel Delany, LA Banks and Walter Mosley.

joe manning said...

Looks like the transition from soft to hard fascism is well underway if not complete. The antidote is a "people's art" informed by mainstream pop like The Real History of SciFi, but with a critical eye. We need to create our own media. Less art for the in-group's sake and more art for art's sake.

joe manning said...

I liked Enemy Mine the Dennis Quaid, Louis Gosset movie which showed the necessity of cooperation for survival. And the Star Trek episode Portrait in Black and White explored the triviality of discrimination based on skin color.

James Estrada-Scaminaci III said...

Not that I'll watch TRHOSF, but if SF wanted to do something interesting, they could have made Superman black and seen how that would have played out in the white supremacist 1930s. After all, there is nothing to suggest that Superman was white--he was an alien, he could have been anything.

chauncey devega said...

Frazetta and Heavy Metal was some great stuff. I don't know enough about his personal politics or if those pieces were commissioned to work within that tired "high fantasy" genre framework. People are complicated. How do we separate our appreciation of some of their work from the personal politics and other attitudes? Tough one.

chauncey devega said...

Cool Jewish brother who fell to Earth. There are some great new books on the creation of the character and its cultural politics.

chauncey devega said...

One of my faves too. If I ever take that shorter chapter for that book which was killed by the publisher and develop it more I will develop my thoughts on Sisko, black masculinity, and that episode more. There are some really smart folks who have written about the Sisko character already.

chauncey devega said...

Wonderful episode. In one of the new Trek novels Kirk and Seven of 9 return to that planet while it is on the precipice of destruction.

chauncey devega said...

Who are those people? Science fiction? Those are BLACK authors. Geez.

tiger said...

Just a few random thoughts from the old man on this topic...On Star Trek TOS it was?" LT.you-vor-ah" now it is "LT. you- whore- ah".Think about, it they would not say the latter on TV in 1968.
In the original Planet of the Apes movie replace the "Beware the Beast Man" speech and change it to "Beware the White Man" and it is a perfect fit...Apes also had one of the first "black people die in these movies"moments
In the original Outer Limits episode Nightmare,the aliens appear to have exaggerated negro features...
In Predator 2 Danny Glover did everything but get the girl...has any black actor ever saved the world and got the girl to this day?
I'm going to take my meds..

craig said...

Here's an amazing illustrator/concept artist who is Chinese American: Feng Zhu http://www.artbyfeng.com/index.html

I love his work but at the same time I wonder where is his Chinese American identity in his work? Does it even matter? In order for POC is it either/or - to make identity front and center or disappear ourselves and focus on the master narrative/images that exist in mainstream expectations? I'm also tired of 'identity' being the focus of asian american art but when identity is completely absent it make me think the artist has 'sold out'.

The Sanity Inspector said...

I didn't see the show, but if they didn't include the Thai author S. P. Somtow, they certainly ought to have.

The Sanity Inspector said...

Nichelle Nichols doesn't get enough credit as a trailblazer. Yes, by now Lt. Uhuru is an obvious & even trite inclusion. But she was probably the first black TV actress most viewers in the 1960s had ever seen, who wasn't playing a domestic or some such.

Martin Wisse said...

Have you seen this The Black Fantastic: highlights of pre World War II African and African American speculative fiction? Black people, African people have been writing science fiction for as long, if not longer than white people.

chauncey devega said...

She is a monumental figure in the civil rights movement. We agree there!

chauncey devega said...

Do share more about that author please.

chauncey devega said...

What meds? Meds are good :)


Can you clarify your pithy wisdom about Uhura?

The Sanity Inspector said...

http://www.sf-encyclopedia.com/entry/somtow_s_p