DuBois and Science Fiction

W. E. B. DuBois wrote science fiction?  It is clear that this shocks folks when they learn that the legendary figure, who was an author, scholar, historian, and activist, also wrote a science fiction text. Entitled "The Comet" and published in 1920, DuBois's story addresses racism, gender relations, and racial identity.

DuBois utilizes the form of the short story, and the tropes of science fiction, to employ his theory of double consciousness in a thought-provoking way.  The text follows Jim, an African American man who works at a bank in New York.  After a passing comet's deadly gas trail seems to leave most of the world dead, Jim struggles to find another living soul in the city.  He stumbles upon a white woman, Julia, who accompanies him on the journey to find survivors.

Over the course of the afternoon and evening, Jim and Julia are forced to consider the possibility that their loved ones are gone, as is the rest of humanity.  In the US in the early 20th century, what will become of this new Adam and Eve?

DuBois establishes the distance between the characters based on race and class - Jim is a working class Black man who was only saved from the comet's gases because he was accidentally locked within the safe of the bank, a place that "was too dangerous for more valuable men." The white woman is working in her darkroom, developing photos when she realizes the staff of her household is dead.  Jim notes that the day before she "would scarcely have looked at him twice" while the woman, as DuBois writes, considers Jim an other who "dwelt in a world so far from hers."

After a fruitless search of the city, the characters begin to accept their fate and forced companionship. DuBois writes, about Jim, that the "shackles seemed to rattle and fall from his soul.  Up from the crass and crushing and cringing of his caste leaped the lone majesty of kings long dead."  This moment is short-lived for Jim, for seemingly out of nowhere arrives the woman's father and friend, who immediately re-establish the boundaries of race and class.  Still, DuBois ends the story with Jim and Julia embracing after their torturous day.

What does it mean to consider DuBois a "science fiction author" in addition to all of his other myriad accomplishments?  The genre has certainly been a space for authors to address societal issues in creative ways, and DuBois utilizes the notion of a deadly comet to uniquely explore race and racism.

DuBois's short story is one of many in the incredible collection Dark Matter: A Century of Speculative Fiction from the African Diaspora, which also includes works by Octavia Butler, Evie Shockley, Samuel R. Delaney, Walter Mosely, Derrick Bell, and Nisi Shawl.