Yes, and Amen

[wlotus]

I mean, I do have an issue with individuals not feeling comfortable with being their unique selves. What I'm fighting against, with the music I create, is the great divide: You know, people who always try to divide you and categorize you and say, "Oh these people are not good enough to be with these people." Because being a black African-American woman and knowing my history, with how slavery happened and evolved and over time it morphed into something else, you know, whether it's discrimination against people that are gay or lesbian or straight or, you know, androids or cyborgs. So I think that it's just really about us doing away with all the labels and categories and just accepting each other for who we are as individuals.

~Janelle Monáe, in a 10 June 2010 interview with the Colorado Springs Independent

Comments

Yes...

[ysabetwordsmith.livejournal.com]

This is well said. Any time you point to a group and claim that they have no rights, or fewer rights, or aren't "really" people, or are "bad" just because they are in that group ... that's going to be a problem.

A great deal of SF is accident watching: See this robot species? See this genetically engineered species? Humanity si going to make the same mistake as with racism and slavery. Wait for it ... ** SMASH ** Yep, they went right into the same pit trap as all the other times!

And somehow, it's still hard to look away. You keep hoping they'll learn.

Re: Yes...

[wlotus.livejournal.com]

I haven't watched much SF--I don't watch many movies of any kind--but this is interesting. I think back to The Matrix series, and that was the case even in that series...except it was the machines who were making the elitism mistake. Now I'm going to look for that pattern in any SF movie I see. :-)

Re: Yes...

[ysabetwordsmith.livejournal.com]

Try watching The Animatrix. It changed the whole Matrix movie series for me, when I realized that the humans started the whole thing by making the usual mistake: enslaving the robots. Epic, epic failure to have clue finally resulted in a planetary cataclysm.

Also, the movie I, Robot is only vaguely inspired by Asimov's writing but is a fascinating exploration of race and prejudice. Pay attention to how the hero, a black policeman, treats robots.

Another place that habitually explores race/prejudice issues is anthropomorphic fiction. There's a splendid anthology called Best in Show that collects some of the most famous stories of this subgenre, and many of them have those themes.

Why does this stuff work, and appeal to audiences? It's a way to deal with extremely delicate and compelling real-life issues at a safe remove, by switching the dynamic from white/black, white/Native American, white/you-name-it to human/robot or human/furry or whatever. That's a bit less likely to start a severe, but gets people thinking about the same issues.