Kindred

The novel I read for this week was Kindred, by Octavia Butler. Just like many of Butler’s works, the themes present ideas not dominantly present in many classical works of science fiction. Being a fan of Octavia Butler’s short stories, such as Bloodchild and Speech Sounds, I was more than excited to read Kindred. And I was not disappointed; Kindred is not only incredibly well-written, but disturbingly accurate in its portrayal of the treatment of African Americans throughout American history.

Kindred is not your typical science fiction; although there are science fiction elements such as time traveling throughout the novel, it discusses the historical endurance of the African American community and explores the politics of gender, race, and slavery. The main character, Dana, is a black woman with the powers of time travel - except when she travels back in time, she lands in a plantation owned by white supremacists in the 1800s. There, she meets her ancestor Rufus, a white slave owner who is cruel and menacing towards Dana and forces her to undergo the life of a slave. However, the purpose of Dana’s time traveling is to prevent Rufus’s death - or at least, until he forcibly rapes her other ancestor, so she can be born. The dynamics of the story play between Dana having to endure the misgivings of Rufus, otherwise she will not exist when she goes back to her current day existence.

I would not say that the text I read for this week reflects the values and perspectives of majoritarian culture. At least, not anymore - although, I say this with a hint of uncertainty, because as proven by the recent events of the election, I cannot say without a hint of hesitation that for the most part, people have looked past prejudices and racism is not as prevalent as it used to be. Of course, the mistreatment of African Americans or African Americans is not nearly as horrendous as it used to be, but there still lies many improvements that must be made for the sake of society. Just because progress has been made, doesn’t mean that we as a people have to stop bettering the lives of everyone.