The inequality and systematic racism that continues to exist in our country is finally becoming exposed after decades of being swept under the rug and denied. Our generation appears to be at the foot of a revolution comparable to the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s. While many of us are desperate for rapid results, progress does not always come easily or quickly. However, though there is not a ton of direct action for the average person to take every single day, that does not mean that the wheels of change have stopped turning. As the donations, signatures, and trials roll in, subtler and less quantifiable improvements can be made within each individual and gradually spread throughout communities. Being white, I will never experience firsthand the racism that oppresses Black Americans. As a result, I am inherently ignorant to the everyday obstacles they must face. To combat this ignorance, Black voices must be heard, Black history taught, Black art appreciated, and Black contributions to society supported.
I love to read, so one super easy way to increase my awareness is to incorporate more Black authors in my reading list. I figured I might as well choose Black women specifically, because I can never have too many female writers. I decided to pick up Kindred by Octavia E. Butler, and I fell in love with this book. It’s about a modern-day (well, as modern as the late 1970s, when this was written) Black woman that is repeatedly dragged back in time to 1815 Maryland. Each trip she is drawn to the same white boy, the son of a plantation owner, and arrives just in time to protect him from danger. However, as you can probably assume, she must face her own, much graver danger as a Black woman in the antebellum South. The horrors she must go through are unimaginable, especially coming from the safer modern age. If you’re faint-hearted, brace yourself, but please still read this book. It can get very intense, but impossible to put down and eye-opening. The nightmare of the antebellum South for Blacks is obviously something we’re all lucky enough to not have lived through ourselves, but that history cannot be erased and forgotten. Not only does this novel depict the lives of slaves, but it also provides insight to what was considered a progressive and modern 1970s, post-Civil Rights Movement. The main character’s return to her home time period is considered her return to safety, and though there’s no denying she does not face the same immediate, life-threatening danger, is there evidence in the novel of that deep-rooted racism remaining? And now, over 40 more years into the future, how much has really changed?