We were talking how the Hulu version of the Handmaid’s Tale pretty much ignores the plight of various minorities, which were at least mentioned in passing in Atwood’s book. I read when the first season came out that the producers made the deliberate choice to ignore the racial undertones from the book because there was so much to explore with the oppression of women. I thought it was a mistake then, and I REALLY think it’s a mistake now.

I remember from the book how Offred was allowed to watch TV before the Ceremony and the announcer on the state news said that the settlement of the Children of Ham in Detroit was proceeding apace. Children of Ham, of course, is a racist trope from way back used against black people, because Noah supposedly cursed Ham and his descendants because Ham saw him naked. As for Jewish people, as Vicious Babushka noted, they were allowed to leave if they pretended to be Hasidim. However, if memory serves, the epilogue to the book indicates a lot of these Jews were simply thrown overboard and drowned.

I remember thinking back when Trump became president that our dystopia is going to be different than The Handmaid’s Tale or It Can’t Happen Here or anything else out there. In fact, we’re writing our dystopia right now, with our own actions, and whether we get out or not depends on what we do. Which is why I am enormously pissed off at the White House correspondents who are having the vapors over Sarah Sanders.