Appallingly bad critical race theory science fiction showcases the ideology’s toxicity.
One of the more interesting periodicals of the hard-left, Jacobin, used to have a book review column for old and new conservative titles called “Books we read, so you don’t have to.” It included mostly mass-market polemics the outlet’s average reader would find especially triggering. If such a column existed for an audience of the opposite orientation, one title that would have to make an appearance is Faces at the Bottom of the Well: The Permanence of Racism by the late Harvard law professor, Justice Department attorney, and critical race theory pioneer Derrick Bell.
The book, published in 1992, is considered a founding text for the CRT movement. This is odd, as it’s not a jargon-heavy, law-based tome, but a collection of short stories, most of them science fiction-based. If you’re curious how sci-fi might translate CRT’s heavily abstract and legalistic ideas, the short answer is that it doesn’t. The stories are breathtakingly bad.
