"The Space Traders"

1992 Bell, Derrick [Albert], [Jr.] (1930-2011). “The Space Traders.” In his Faces at the Bottom of the Well: The Permanence of Racism (New York: Basic Books, 1992), 158-94, 212-13. Rpt. in Dark Matter: A Century of Speculative Fiction from the African Diaspora. Ed. Sheree R. Thomas (New York: Warner Books, 2000), 326-55. An earlier, shorter version was published as “The Chronicles of the Space Traders” as part of his “After We're Gone: Prudent Speculations on America in a Post-Racial Epoch A Forum on Derrick Bell's Civil Rights Chronicles--1989 Sanford E Sarasohn Memorial Lecture.” Saint Louis University Law Journal 34.3 (Spring 1990): 397-400. The issue of the journal includes articles discussing the story. A slightly different version was published under the same title as part of his “Racism: A Prophecy for the Year 2000.” Rutgers Law Review 42.1 (Fall 1989): 96-100. The story was adapted for television in 1994 by Trey Ellis (b. 1962) and directed by Reginald Hudlin (b. 1961). The author’s papers are held at New York University. PSt

Dystopian satire. Aliens visiting the US offer to provide the country with everything needed to solve many of its problems in exchange for the entire African American population. Offered enough gold to bail out the country, chemicals that can un-pollute the environment, and a safe nuclear energy and fuel to overcome the energy crisis, the US government agrees, and all African Americans are loaded onto what are obviously slave ships. See also 1987, 1991, and 1998 Bell. For a story about refugees that resonates with this story, see 2020 Yu.The author was the first African American Professor of Law at Harvard University, where he regularly protested the lack of faculty diversity; he then became a Visiting Professor of Law at New York University.