Re: [UUPoly-L] Evoking Heinlein

["Catherine Deville" <catdeville@cox.net>]

It's just Cat :)  (No need for quotes ;-) 
 
Selah said: 
"As an Afrikan American I did find what I thought to be some of what I  
concluded to be Heinlein's "racial disposition" disconcerting.  However, I
find your explanation to be plausible, and since I am a fan of Heinlein's, I
am cheerfully disposed ( and relieved) to accept the explanation that you
have  given."

The Lazarus Long stories are also my favorites. You have to read them
carefully, but it's intriguing to see how often Heinlein slipped "minority"
characters into his novels as a way to counter racist thought. Here are just
a few examples that you might find intriguing when you get a chance to read
further:

Eunice in "I Will Fear No Evil" - her race is not defined, but Heinlein
apparently wrote the novel with pictures of two attractive women above his
computer for inspiration, one white, one black.

Juan (Johnny) Rico, the main character in "Starship Troopers" is Filipino.

Rod Walker in "Tunnel in the Sky" is black, although it's not explicitly
stated the clues are in there, but since Heinlein didn't treat race in this
novel as an "issue" he writes all characters regardless of their sex or race
as characters, on equal footing.

Heinlein Society member & Heinlein scholar/researcher, Robert James, PH.D.
explains further: "The evidence is slim but definite. First and foremost,
outside of the text, there is a letter in which RAH firmly states that Rod
is black, and that Johnny Rico is Filipino. As to the text itself, it is
implied rather than overt. RAH often played games with the skin color of his
characters, in what I see as a disarming tactic against racists who may come
to identify with the hero, then realize later on that they have identified
with somebody they supposedly hate. He does this in a number of different
places. Part of this may also have to do with the publishing mores of the
time, which probably would not have let him get away with making his main
character black in a juvenile novel. The most telling evidence is that
everybody in "Tunnel" expects Rod to end up with Caroline, who is explicitly
described as black. While that expectation may seem somewhat racist to us
today, it would be a firm hint to the mindset of the fifties, which would
have been opposed to interracial marriages. I think RAH himself would have
been infuriated by the suggestion that this was racist; indeed, I think it
more likely that this was simply the easiest way to signal a reader from the
fifties that he's been slipped a wonderful protagonist who is not white. I
have taught this novel many times, and at least twice, a teenage student has
asked me if Rod was black without me prompting the possibility whatsoever."

His most radical statement on racism is, of course, Farnham's Freehold,
where the white protagonists are thrown into a future world of role
reversal, where he demonstrates the most extreme evils of racism.  Keep in
mind when you read this one, however, that the book was written (in serial
form originally) in 1964, and that it's set in 1950s... the role reversals
*are not* a commentary on black Muslim society... the stereotypes used are
allegories for the historical dehumanization and evils of racism, and
Heinlein uses the role reversal to force whites to reflect on the evils of
racial supremacy. (Just as "Sixth Column" doesn't use Asians as the
antagonist out of racism, but because it was written in the 40s, and
therefore conflict between Asia and the US is believable to the reader...
just as the James Bond films of the 60s & 70s commonly used Russia as the
antagonist because they were written during the cold war.)

Analyzing the use of gender and race within Heinlein's works is like
analyzing it's use in the original Star Trek.  When you critique it in
context, it's amazing how much he "got away with" in advancing people's way
of thinking without getting caught.  Just seeing how many times he gave
young people a black protagonist, slipping that role model past publishers
who would likely have bounced the novel or forced him to change it if they
had caught it is absolutely awe inspiring. 

NT, 
Cat