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Speculative Fictions of Race and Ethnicity - Coggle Diagram
Speculative Fictions of Race and Ethnicity
History
Kindred
Kindred
focuses on the Antebellum South while slavery was very much alive. Dana travels through time to the past. She discovers her ancestors, who were living as slaves.
Dana's husband, Kevin, romanticizes their experience in the past. He expresses, "This could be a great time to live in" (Butler 97). Their experiences on the past are vastly different because Kevin is a white man in the Antebellum South and Dana is a black woman.
Dana is constantly dragged back to the past whenever Rufus needs help. When he is about to die, Dana is called back to save him. She witnesses first hand accounts of the brutal treatment of slaves and attempts to run away multiple times.
"The Man Who Ended History: A Documentary"
This story accounts for the dismissal of historical events and suffering based on lack of evidence and personal narratives. The reading on unit 731 reveals the horrors of the lethal experiments of Chinese citizens conducted by the Japanese army during World War II.
The reading highlights the issue of denial and reconciliation of the past. There were many accounts of people refusing to believe that the atrocities actually happened, but there was an attempt of reparations on the behalf of the deceased. The problem is that failure to recognize faults results in failure of efficient apology and retribution.
"The Litigation Master and the Monkey King"
This passage deals with the argument over accounts in history and how we remember them. History has events, but we have different ways of perceiving them and analyzing them.
Tian and The Monkey King argue over the perception of Grand Secretary Shi. Tian sees his actions as heroic and necessary, where the Monkey King had a broader view of the events and refused to settle for the simple details in order to assess Shi for who he really was and criticized him.
"Good Hunting"
the story leans to the dark consequences of colonialism in history pertaining to China. The englishmen mock the Mandarin's way of living and their practices of industrialization. Their way of living is different and the Englishmen claim it is unefficient and wrong. When the Chinese man came up with a satisfactory invention for the engine, he is accused of stealing the idea from the Westerner. This story goes to show the demeaning of another culture and the power the colonizers have.
Gender
Children of Men
In the film, women are infertile and it is them to blame for the population's sudden hault in growth.
Women are stripped from their traumas of infertility, and dismissed of their natural role to be a mother. The title refers to children being of men, rather than women, denying their positions of bearing children.
With the post-apocalyptic barenness of women in the film, comes the emphasized value of the child over the woman. The children have more value.
Women are objectified for their bodies and their ability to birth and save the world with their wombs.
"Good Hunting"
This reading explores gender roles within Chinese standards. Women are objectified and expected to succumb to men's orders. The hulijing has to achieve higher powers to get the ability to escape her position as a prisoner. She was referenced as a "whore" though she was forced into sexual exploitation.
Kindred
We see glimpses of how women were dismissed and oppressed. Dana acknowledges her position as not only black, but also a woman. Rufus's mother, Margaret receives treatment from her son that reveals his father's temper and attitude towards women and his wife.
Being a black woman during the time of slavery was very dangerous and quite different than a black man's experience. Women were not only abused and tortured like men, but they were sexually exploited and abused.
Dana has to battle with a white rapist as her time being a slave.
Antebellum
Similar to
Kindred
Veronica is a black woman who is transported to the antebellum south environment. As Eden, she experiences the accounts of sexual abuse and exploitation from white men.
While Eden was 'owned' as a slave, she was also used for sex and her body.
The film reinforces the stereotype or assumption about black women that stemmed from the slavery period. This assumption that black women are 'strong' and 'built for hardships of life' because of what they went through as female slaves. This dehumanizes them and their sensitivity as a vulnerable community to mortality during childbirth and little respect in society.
White Supremacy
Mongrels
This novella concerns the life as a werewolf in a society that is fearful of them and forces them to hide and escape. In this world, The werewolves have to live and accomodate to the society they live in because their identity is deemed as dangerous.
Get Out
In the film, Chris is surrounded by white characters, leaving him the odd man out. He is constantly confronted with casual racism and microagressions against him for being black. He has to remain silent on his behalf and refrain from correcting the people around him in fear of reaction that shows how being a black person, a minority, in a white supremacist society, is dangerous and comes with many risks. He has to be careful of his words and actions because of his skin color and how easy it would be for him to get into trouble.
Because of his white supremacist environment, Chris has to appease the white family and friends by altering his behavior to fit a 'white' standard. In other words, 'code switching' is in place for him to use words and behaviors that white people would be comfortable with for him to do.
Shadowshaper
Sierra and her aunts have internalized colorism. They try to assimilate to the growing white population by straightening their hair and desiring white features like skin and body.
Sierra wishes her skin was lighter and believes it would make people like her more and find her more attractive. She calls herself "coffee with not enough milk".
"Loneliness is in Your Blood"
The Sukunyoa is from the Caribbean, where colonization affected the entire population and revamped the cultural makeup. She was left in a state of utter loneliness because there was no one else left like her. She had to live in a world where she was an outsider and never felt belonging or love from another. She had no connection with others or humans except for when she used her body to possess them. This fits into white supremacy because of the outsider feeling and the loneliness that falls under that power of a predominantly white society and patriarchy.
Racism
Antebellum
The film directly addresses racism in its barest form of slavery.
An entire community of white men enforce abuse and power over the black men and women on the plantation, causing fear and trauma.
Even in the present time of the film, Veronica is an author who is still striving for equality and recognition as a black woman in work. This contrast between present and past reveals there are still examples of racism and inequality for black women and they are constantly trying to achieve being seen and heard and valued.
Shadowshaper
The novella explores themes of racism within a community of color. Systemic racism is evident in the Brooklyn community as it becomes gentrified and replacing communities of color with hipster businesses that exclude the community that was there prior, shutting them out and making it difficult to continue their lifestyles there with the intrusion of expenses and white supremacy.
Sierra's mother and aunts have prejudice against her new Haitian friend, Robbie. They do not approve of his ethnicity and formed opinions on him based on his skin. One of her aunts have a rule about dating a man darker than her foot, saying they are no good if their skin is too dark.
Sierra's friends make remarks that mock Robbie for being Haitian.
"The Man Who Ended History: A Documentary"
In Unit 731, the Japanese army killed thousands of Chinese prisoners and civilians. They directed their chemical warfare on this population primarily.
An account from a Japanese individual states that when people found out they were Japanese, it was assumed they would hold all of these stereotypes directed towards Japanese people like the obsession with anime and karaoke.
another account expresses disdain against Chinese people because they are cruel for 'eating dogs'. This labels them as 'other' and scolded for just being Chinese and grouping them into this greusome stereotype.
Get Out
The ultimate plot of the film targets black people by the family's ploy to abduct black individuals in order to perform eugenics experiments on them.
There is passive racism when the police officer pulls over his white girlfriend and insists on seeing Chirs's ID. Though he had nothing to do with the misdemeanor, he was targeted and placed as the offender because of his race being seen as a threat.
The film includes every day experiences of life as a black man and all of the incidents of racism that occur on a regular basis. It shows the audience just how many times racism is infused in black people's lives and how it builds up to a system of racist behaviors.
Preservation
"The Litigation Master and the Monkey King"
the story concerns the importance and significance preserving history holds.
Tian risks his life to save the book that held the truth about an event regarding the massacre and mass murder of the population in the city in which the Manchu army was responsible for and the government covered it up.
Tian's belief in preserving the history around the event shows how necessary it was for him to save the information and the truth behind something that was concealed and lied about.
"A Guide to the Fruits of Hawai'i"
The story picks out humans to be the victims as the vampires exploit them for feeding and entertainment. The humans are controlled and modified to the vampires' desires. This alludes to colonization and how Westerners commodified a pre-existing culture into their own fantasies and beliefs of order, erasing and silencing what was already there and shaping a community to their own standards.
"Loneliness is in Your Blood"
The Sukunyoa has to shed her skin and her identity to go out in public and act like herself. She is the only one left of her culture and the only way to preserve it is to teach her daughter who wants no part of it. The girl is ashamed and angry with living in the print of her mother. Their culture is endangered and the Sukunyoa teaches the girl how to take her first blood, passing on the identity they both share.
Mongrels
The main character in the novella struggles to find his identity in a society that is different from him and his relatives. He wishes to continue the legacy of becoming a werewolf, but their family genes do not guarantee that he will transform. This brings in the idea of Blood Quantum and how the amount of Indian blood distinguishes one's status or percentage of being of Native American descent. The proportions of the family's genes exemplify this term and their culture is quickly diminishing.
