Great quote. It saddens me that, generally, there is a big lack in afro-futurist/fantasy fiction. There's this whole idea in the black community that if you're going to write, then it had better be about something that specifically relates to the black person's struggle in a very real environment. I have to say that most science fiction by black authors does see to have a noticeably bleaker tone than other novels I've read. I find it even more apparent in older, middle aged writers. There's this weird dire-ness that looms over Bulter and Gibson's work.
P.S. Butler was one of my favorite writers and influences and I was quite upset to see her go.
Did you ever have a dispute with your bank about the fairness of a charge to your account? It sure is convenient that they decide the fairness of their actions.
And do try to separate the relative importance of the matter involved from the dynamics of the interaction, before dismissing the example as trivial. At what point does the matter in question become important? What if there were total deregulation, i.e., no 3rd party oversight, no consumer protections?
Are you treated as an equal in this interaction? Why can't you put your children's organs up as collateral for a house loan? And what if one day you found out that your vital organs had been put up as collateral for someone's loans? And that is was done all the time and no one thought it was at all unfair?
To use a legal term, what if there were only contractions of adhesion? That is contracts whose terms could not be negotiated? But you were still held to the terms of such a contract?
The civil right's movement is generally considered by most afro-centrists that I read both a positive step and an effective mask. It gave just enough to allow us to claim that the black voice in the system is equal but it allowed the societal tensions that exist today and will exist in the future to go on, masked.
@richardmayhew: i prefer arron macgruder's interpretation of the civil right's movement as extolled in the episode of the boondocks TV series titled return of the king. many affluent members of society of multiple races have found exploiting negative racial stereotypes to be very profitable as seen on BET, MTV, ect ad nauseum. if further progress is to be made on this front society must move away from the tacit assumption that an individual cannot be racist against their own race as this is simply not true.
didn't the civil rights movement literally force the system to recongnize african americans as human and acknowledge their ability to challenge or destroy the system?
12/08/08
P.S. Butler was one of my favorite writers and influences and I was quite upset to see her go.
12/09/08
12/08/08
And do try to separate the relative importance of the matter involved from the dynamics of the interaction, before dismissing the example as trivial. At what point does the matter in question become important? What if there were total deregulation, i.e., no 3rd party oversight, no consumer protections?
Are you treated as an equal in this interaction? Why can't you put your children's organs up as collateral for a house loan? And what if one day you found out that your vital organs had been put up as collateral for someone's loans? And that is was done all the time and no one thought it was at all unfair?
To use a legal term, what if there were only contractions of adhesion? That is contracts whose terms could not be negotiated? But you were still held to the terms of such a contract?
12/08/08
12/08/08
Consumerist, that way.
/point
12/08/08
12/08/08
12/08/08