Racial uplift in speculative fiction: technological empowerment and the enforcement of black identity in Colson Whitehead’s 'The Intuitionist' and 'John Henry Days'

Following the steps of technological innovation in the US, one can easily notice how technology and its use has been inaccurately and stereotypically reduced to an exclusivism related to a white-Western ideal. However, black speculative fiction has often tried to overtake this concern. In light of this, the aim of this contribution is to examine the relationship between black identity and technology through the lens of speculative fiction, in Colson Whitehead’s The Intuitionist and John Henry Days. The final goal is to demonstrate how Whitehead uses technology as a trope to reinforce or rather empower black identity in what will be eventually defined as a form of “racial uplift,” an enforcement of blackness that elevates the African-American putting him in a position of competence and control toward the machine. Delving into the stereotype of technology as a form of racism toward the black community, by way of conclusion the essay considers Whitehead as an “uplift writer” for his illustration ofc technology as a narrative tool that lifts black identity by subverting the discriminative and racist encodement of African-Americans within technological development.