Faces at the Bottom of the Well: The Permanence of Racism

Aliens land off the coast of the United States in aircraft-carrier-style ships one day. They offer gold enough to bail out the nearly bankrupt United States, energy enough to power the country for a century, and clean technology that would avert the environmental disaster that threatens the country and the planet. In exchange, they want the US to give them every African American in the United States for transport off the planet and into an unknown future. The trade will happen on Martin Luther King, Jr., Day. They threaten no violence but know the nearly bankrupt, dirty country teetering on the edge of environmental destruction will likely accept.

People begin calling them “Space Traders,” and everyone knows the deal is almost guaranteed to go through. Most white people see the aliens as some kind of saviors or superheroes. Most African Americans see them as malevolent. White people ignore African Americans’ insight because of the rule of racial standing that says that African Americans talking about African Americans are to be ignored (see Rule 1 in Chapter 6: “The Rules of Racial Standing”).

The usual political groups come out in support of or oppose the trade. The only opposition with real access to decision-makers is