The Importance Of Racism In Olivia Butler's Kindred
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Famous scientist Charles Darwin once said: “It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent that survives. It is the one that is most adaptable to change.” As humans we have one of two choices, adapt to our environment or die. It’s that simple. Sometimes adapting meant giving up your basic human freedoms, as was the case with slaves in the antebellum south. In Olivia Butler’s novel, Kindred, we follow along a modern black woman, Dana, who finds herself in the 18th century colonial America and witnesses what slaves must endure. Like the slaves, she too must find a way to survive during this period of oppression for blacks. At the climax of the story, she is able to free herself from this period of time. However,…show more content… Although those enslaved blacks are no longer alive, they set the stage for feelings of anger felt within the black community today. Our modern day interracial relationships are influenced by these feelings and is at the root of racism. If blacks wish to survive in today’s society then they must be those feelings away, like the salves of the Antebellum South. This meant sometimes treating someone in a manner different than your personal feelings. This was seen in Butler’s novel - “The slaves seemed to like Rufus, hold him in contempt, and fear him all at the same time. . . . I had thought my feelings were complicated because he and I had such a strange relationship. But then, slavery of any kind fostered strange relationships.” said Dana to describe the relationship that the slaves had with Rufus. Africans were forced feelings upon slave masters who they genuinely did not like, and it has transferred to the present. One cannot deny that there still exists African Americans who carry with them feelings of resentment. Those who fall under that category are forced to conceal their true emotions in order to go about their everyday activities needed to live. More often than not, they will encounter someone of white descent while going about their basic life needs. Like slaves, blacks cannot survive in today’s society if they carry with them a hostile attitude towards