African American Imperialism In Kindred

Throughout Octavia E. Butler’s Kindred there are a lot racial contexts that revolve around time traveling. In the novel, readers are introduced to a black woman, specifically African-American by the name of Dana who has a white husband named Kevin. Within the story, Dana time travels and she finds herself retracing her ancestral roots and background through slavery. Realizing that she is in the 1800s, she begins to connect the dots every time she passes out and goes back in time. She tries to understand her family’s history when she is sent back to this era of slavery. Coming to the conclusion that there is an important reason why she continues to find herself in that predicament, she allows herself to explore what it felt like to be a black person in the 1800s and she realizes that her race defines her. Living in a society where the enslavement of black people is no longer allowed and where her relationship with her husband is acceptable, Butler stresses a lot of importance in the severity of the racial tension that went on in the 1800s. With Dana time traveling back to an era where she is degraded and belittled because of her race, Butler expresses a big point about race and time. In the beginning of the book, Dana …show more content…
Also, being that he asked her if she was a slave, this shows that if you were black during that time, you were either a slave, a runaway slave, or a freed slave with valid documentation. Rufus assumed that Dana was a slave because she was black. This also portrays how race defines you as a person. If you were white at that time, you had more power and you weren’t dehumanized. If you were black at that time, you were subject to maltreatment and hate. Whenever Rufus calls Dana a nigger, she makes sure that she corrects