The selected reading, “Space Traders” is a troubling story about race relations, greed, status and reckless political power. The story begins on the first day of the year 2000 in the United States of America. For the first time ever, visitors from a star in outer space were to visit earth; in fact, they had announced their visit via radio broadcasts weeks in advance. Millions of people were prepared to witness this historic event.
The visitors from the far star arrived in a grand fashion, including one thousand ships. Preparations were made to greet the visitors, with celebrities and dignitaries present at the event. The arrival was compared to being akin to Christopher Columbus’ arrival on the island of Santo Domingo, a beginning point …show more content…
The President of the United States called a special cabinet meeting the following day with a specific agenda. The President did not have any black members in his cabinet. However, he did have a black unofficial member, Professor Golightly, who was known for his conservativeness. Concurrently, Congress received many phone calls on the subject, with a well-defined split between the white callers and the black callers. The white callers believed that America was selected for an honor with the first visitors from outer space and were pleasantly relieved that the Space Traders were “unthreatening” and “no-nonsense folks like regular Americans.” While the black callers viewed this as a time of crisis, observing the Space Traders as “distinctly …show more content…
I think the black people were actually forced into involuntary servitude instead of the more patriotic-sounding form of selective service that they chose to enact. It is another example of what Katheryn Russell-Brown states in The Color of Crime, “Study after study shows that Blacks and Whites hold contrary viewpoints about the fairness of the criminal justice system. Blacks are more likely to believe that the justice system works against them, and Whites are more likely to believe that the justice system works for them. ” (Brown 39). No race should be singled out, ever, by a public policy. Policies can be shaped such that they are not blatantly including or excluding certain people, but they do. There should be policies at all levels of the government that do not allow a single race to be either included, excluded, punished or rewarded at a different rate than another race. If all men were created equal, all men should be treated
The visitors from the far star arrived in a grand fashion, including one thousand ships. Preparations were made to greet the visitors, with celebrities and dignitaries present at the event. The arrival was compared to being akin to Christopher Columbus’ arrival on the island of Santo Domingo, a beginning point …show more content…
The President of the United States called a special cabinet meeting the following day with a specific agenda. The President did not have any black members in his cabinet. However, he did have a black unofficial member, Professor Golightly, who was known for his conservativeness. Concurrently, Congress received many phone calls on the subject, with a well-defined split between the white callers and the black callers. The white callers believed that America was selected for an honor with the first visitors from outer space and were pleasantly relieved that the Space Traders were “unthreatening” and “no-nonsense folks like regular Americans.” While the black callers viewed this as a time of crisis, observing the Space Traders as “distinctly …show more content…
I think the black people were actually forced into involuntary servitude instead of the more patriotic-sounding form of selective service that they chose to enact. It is another example of what Katheryn Russell-Brown states in The Color of Crime, “Study after study shows that Blacks and Whites hold contrary viewpoints about the fairness of the criminal justice system. Blacks are more likely to believe that the justice system works against them, and Whites are more likely to believe that the justice system works for them. ” (Brown 39). No race should be singled out, ever, by a public policy. Policies can be shaped such that they are not blatantly including or excluding certain people, but they do. There should be policies at all levels of the government that do not allow a single race to be either included, excluded, punished or rewarded at a different rate than another race. If all men were created equal, all men should be treated