The subject of race in American science fiction

Using three primary authors, I discuss the evolution of racial subjectivity as constructed in American science fiction over the course of the twentieth century. Written during the first decade of the twentieth century, Edgar Rice Burroughs' Mars series exemplifies not only the multi-generic nature of early sf, but also a normative racial triangle of author, protagonist, and audience. Within this Anglo male triangle, a false universalism of perspective is constructed. Therefore, the issue of race paradoxically is elided, even as Burroughs utilizes racial essentialism in his portrayal of the Anglo male protagonist and the other races this protagonist encounters. Racial essentialism firmly links biology and culture, creating stable, race-based identity. Furthermore, Burroughs links racial essentialism with the concept of progress to place Carter at the pinnacle of a racial hierarchy. While Burroughs' scientific racialism reflects that of the scientific community and the anti-immigration movement in the United States at the turn of the century, the speculative element of the sf genre affords an element of racial egalitarianism as well. It is this small seed upon which later sf writers build.;During the 1930s, George S. Schuyler wrote a science fiction novel, Black No More, and a serial for a largely African-American audience. The African-American protagonists of both these narratives joined with the audience and Schuyler's ancestry to invert the normative racial triangle of early science fiction. For this reason, Schuyler and his texts have been consistently placed in the genre of African-American literature, rather than that of science fiction. Unfortunately, this literary context prevents a more positive reading of Schuyler's texts, one which acknowledges Schuyler's ground-breaking portrayal of a constructed concept of race and racial identity. Schuyler created an individualistic, highly variable concept of race at odds with the racial essentialism still widely accepted throughout the United States.;It is not until the 1960s and the career of Samuel R. Delany that the two genres of science fiction and African-American literature converge more fully. Delany expands on Schuyler's racial constructionist approach to identity, including gender and sexuality addition to race. In such works as The Ballad of Beta-2 and Trouble on Triton, Delany explores the repercussions of a multiple and variable postmodern subjectivity for the maintenance of racial identity in the future. By exploring racial issues firmly within the boundaries of the sf community, Delany has helped open the door for more direct and extensive racial investigations within the genre.