Space Traders & CRT - Art Imitates Life

“... white- over- color ascendancy serves important purposes, both psychic and material, for the dominant group.”

This line from page 8 of last week’s reading repeated in my mind as I watched the Space Traders and as I read the short story. Space traders is essentially the ultimate act of white-over-color ascendancy. The manner in which the government officials sat so matter of factly at a table to discuss the fate of American citizens without ever thinking of attack, protection, or retaliation speaks to the agreed upon position and opinion many whites hold and have when considering Black people.

I watched and read with a deep knowing that it wouldn’t matter if the aliens promised resources or technology. If this kind of arrival were to happen and a request for Black Americans was made, the result would be the same.

The government officials spouted off numbers to support their rationale in favor, or against the “trade” in ways that eliminated the humanity of the people whose lives they were trading away. X% reduction in welfare. X% reduction in military personnel.

The reading outlines how whites viewed the aliens as harmless - as these extraterrestrials only sought Black people, they seemingly reaffirmed white ascendancy/supremacy.

Black people saw the aliens as bad news - as they appeared to uphold the disenfranchisement and unequal treatment they’ve experienced for centuries.

In the written story, all Black people were required in the trade. In the television version, only those with 2600mg of melanin per square inch were required (a melanin content that could include Cambodians, Asian Indians, Aboriginal people, and several other races) - or anyone the color of a paper bag or darker.

The reference to a paper bag is very intentional as that shade has been a color marker throughout history to determine how people are treated by society. This presentation in the film continues to feed into the CRT theory that race has much to do with perception vs. culture or other identifiers.

There is never an explanation of what will happen to the people taken by the aliens and as they are beamed off the planet, there are no shots of fear, anger, or despair from white Americans. The news broadcast speaks of a new era of peace for the country, as if all problems were magically solved with the ridding of a large segment of society. This particular section of the show highlighted the ways in which Black people are blamed for all of the negative aspects of American society. It represented, for me, the removal of white guilt and provided whites with rewards (gold, pollution removal), solving problems that were largely created by whites themselves.

Again, whites are elevated and rewarded. They are made to feel superior and thus, the aliens are not seen as negative or scary. If the aliens arrived and required all white Americans, nuclear missiles would be detonated off the eastern seaboard. That no counter action is ever considered reinforces the importance, or lack there of, of Black people in America.

The farce of the referendum, when the government had already made its decision also under girds how elites have all of the power and receive all of the benefit, while everyone else goes through the motions with the illusion of choice. CRT showed us how white elites position everyone else, pitting them against each other, even against their own interest.

The story begins with the faces in the well, and explains that the faces remain there because others don’t, or wont grasp the concept that elevating those in the well strengthens everyone. Instead, those outside of the well cling to their position in favor of having someone to look down on. Space Traders is the ultimate exercise in looking down at the faces in the well. Blame for a country’s problems are shifted to a race, allowing others, no matter their position, to look down and then away when the time comes.