Space, Race, and Earthling Trash
Race, Refugees, and the Martian New Deal
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.18060/28541Keywords:
race, space, post-apocalyptic fiction, Afrofuturism, The Martian Chronicles, The Illustrated ManAbstract
This essay explores how Ray Bradbury’s stories reflect the intersections of race, space, and social injustice in post-apocalyptic settings. The stories “Way in the Middle of the Air” and “The Other Foot” deal overtly with race and prejudice, showing how African Americans are first driven to Mars and then, having fled there, must confront white refugees from Earth, offering a nuanced exploration of race, revenge, and reconciliation. “The Garbage Collector,” while less overtly about race, also reveals systemic racial hierarchies.
Bradbury’s works, while progressive for their time, remain complicated by the author’s own later-life comments on race, yet they remain vital texts relating to Afrofuturism and post-racial narratives in science fiction.
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Copyright (c) 2024 Jeffrey Kahan
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