Race Prejudice on Venus (Heinlein)

Book:  Space Cadet by Robert A. Heinlein (1948)

Heinlein tackles the concept of racism in this book.  It’s a pretty gutsy move, but you have to keep in mind that Heinlein must have been a generally ballsy dude to even speculate about things like space travel and future technology.

Considering this is a young adult sci-fi book, you have to hand it to him for trying to steer kids in the right direction when it comes to prejudice and discrimination.

The planet Venus is inhabited by aliens called frog people; humans also live on Venus and have surveyed the surface and concluded that there are valuable metals to be mined.  Humans kidnap the leader of the Venusians, causing warfare that leads to many deaths including most of the human surveying crew.  This leaves only the captain of the crew who then encounters our heroes (space cadets who have been sent to investigate the unrest on Venus) when they are being held by the Venusians.

While all of them are being held they speak candidly about the aliens.  The captain has racist feelings toward the “Venerians” and is enraged by the killing of his crew even though his actions are what caused them.  He calls them “beasts” and “brutes” and “frogs”, while our heroes insist they are “people”.  The captain accuses one of the space cadets of siding with the frog people against a man.

Good thing then that one of the young men lived on Venus before going into the space academy, and he had been able to set the record straight to his friends beforehand.  Some dialogue:

“Matt [the main character] nodded.  ‘I know that they are described as being a gentle, unwarlike race.  I can’t imagine becoming really fond of them, but the spools I studied showed them as friendly.’

‘That’s just race prejudice. A Venerian is easier to like than a man.’

‘Oz, that’s not fair,’ Tex protested. Matt hasn’t got any race prejudice and neither have I.  Take Lieutenant Peters – did it make any difference to us that he’s as black as the ace of spades?’

‘That’s not the same thing – a Venerian is really different.’”

Not exactly how we would speak now, but still on the right track to tell young adults that there is no difference between white people and black people, and to point out how subtle “race prejudice” is.

 

The frog people of Venus (Heinlein)

Book:  Space Cadet by Robert A. Heinlein (1948)

The most striking thing to me about this story is how humans want to exploit resources on another planet and will be deceptive in order to reach those ends.

In Space Cadet, the planet Venus is inhabited by what humans call Little People since they are short, or “frog people” because they are like amphibians.  Unfortunately, Heinlein gives very little description of what they look like and that is one of my few complaints about this book.

The Venusians are pretty good-natured according to one of the young men who lived on Venus.  He says that they “don’t have the cussedness in them that humans have.”

The females are the only ones any humans have seen, and they speak using the term “mother” for nearly all individuals who are of high rank.

The fact that Venus is inhabited doesn’t stop humans from determining what valuable metals exist there and strong-arming the inhabitants in order to get access to them.

When watching Avatar, I had not realized this storyline had been developed so many years prior.  Avatar takes it to a much more detailed and exciting conclusion, but the idea is planted by Heinlein with Space Cadet.   Fun book with lots of great ideas for the time.