re: #393 Gus

Dave provides a fair treatment of this:

I thought Conor Friedersdorf’s write-up was decent too: “The Sci-Fi Story That Offends Oversensitive White Conservatives”

Had white Americans swiftly repudiated the alien offer due to their basic decency and lack of racism, the story wouldn’t be controversial, so I trust I am not spoiling anything by revealing that isn’t how things go in the piece. Bell has a rather dark view of human nature — see The Lottery for another dark exploration of a similar theme — and can you blame him? He was born in 1930 and spent his early career helping to desegregate swimming pools and schools over the objections of racists who wanted to keep them segregated. And he was later forced to resign from the Justice Department for the transgression of refusing to give up his NAACP membership.

I don’t really understand what the conservatives who conclude from this story that he is a racist are talking about. In fact, he seemed to think, circa 1992, that a majority of whites still harbored complicated but ultimately racist attitudes toward blacks. If the aliens came to America today, their ships loaded with gold, I don’t think America would agree to sell them its black residents if it went to majority vote. I am less certain how a referendum on Muslims would go. America would certainly have sold aliens citizens of Japanese ancestry in 1941. And also Native Americans at various points throughout our history.

Those objecting to “The Space Traders” would do well to acknowledge that for many decades of American history, including years during Professor Bell’s life, a majority of Americans would have voted in favor of trading blacks for fantastic wealth, unlimited energy, and an end to pollutants. I wonder, if God could run the hypotheticals for us, and Americans were forced to wager $1,000 of their own money, what year they’d choose as the first when blacks would win the referendum. I’d be curious for an answer from Diane Ellis, who seems to think that the story is deplorable and evidence of Bell’s alleged racism. I’d say it’s evidence that his experiences made him understandably pessimistic about how racial majorities will treat racial minorities given the right circumstances. To label someone as a racist for honesty conveying his dark view of human nature is the sort of politically correct, reductive stifling of speech that conservatives are supposed to stand against.