Yes.

Let’s start with some history. Reconstruction after the American Civil War began immediately with Abraham Lincoln’s federal government imposing the Thirteenth Amendment to completely abolish slavery everywhere in the USA. While Northern states ratified it quickly, Lincoln convinced, cajoled and forced previously slave-owning states to ratify it before they would be granted aid and resources to rebuild. Most did so grudgingly.

Less than a month after states had begun to ratify the Amendment, Lincoln has been assassinated and his Vice President Andrew Johnson, who was strongly opposed to his policies, decided instead to be lenient towards ex-Confederates so as to rush the defeated states back into the Union to get back onto the international stages as soon as possible. While he sought to ratify this Amendment as soon as possible, he vetoed bills that would give the newly-freed black people full equality as American citizens with the ability to vote. The fact that he was an ex-slave owner himself and associated with many more could have played a part in his decision, but frankly it just wasn’t high on his list of priorities.

Ulysses S. Grant, the ex-Union top General became president after that and overrode a lot of Johnson’s actions and enforced the new equality laws and crushed the KKK using Northern Union troops, but these troops were eventually withdrawn from all states by 1876, leaving southern black people to their fates. In some Southern states black men (5) were elected to Congress, but by the turn of the century, each previously seceded state constitution had been successfully changed to disenfranchise black voters and return to a complete white rule, something that the majority of their leaders had favoured all along.

Next you have the Jim Crow era. I’m sure you’ve heard of how well that went for black people. But don’t worry, those African-Americans were now ‘free’. Yay! But really, due to high rent and low pay for any work they did, as well as making travel as difficult as possible for them, coupled with lynchings and no real legal or democratic representation, freedom for African Americans was effectively the same as slavery. If you haven’t, read Harper Lee’s To Kill a Mockingbird or watch the film. It gives you a good idea of how justice operated for black people during the Jim Crow era through the eyes of a white child.

But how does that impact on the modern USA you ask?

By the early 1960s, improving Civil Rights in the USA was a cornerstone of Democratic Party President John F. Kennedy’s manifesto, and just like after Lincoln’s assassination, after Kennedy’s in 1963, another Vice President Johnson became the man who had to support more rights for African Americans knowing many around him weren’t sure it was necessary. It would prevent him from receiving support from white Conservatives, and could actually lead to more violence against African Americans. However, he was successful in passing the law by convincing enough of the opposition party to back it. He is reputed to have said at the time:

"I think we just delivered the South to the Republican party for a long time to come”

This continues to be largely true over fifty years later.

The Jim Crow era only really ended with the passing of these laws. Is that modern enough?

Even after that the segregation and anti-miscegenation (racial mixing and blood purity) laws these states had until 1967! Is that modern enough?

Again, I suppose you think that this is only really those crazy racists down in the south, beating up on their African-American neighbours as they are wont to do?

The entire US electoral system has been, continues to be and is now increasingly rigged against African Americans. Gerrymandering and systemic voter restrictions, removal of polling stations close to mostly African American neighbourhoods, as well as downright lies about apparent voter ID fraud are all in the US-wide Republican playbook and have been for years. A playbook which they learned from the Jim Crow-era southerners.

This means that everything up to the Electoral College is skewed in favour of Republican areas with more dispersed populations, while those with large urban centres with higher African American populations have their votes reduced and marginalised.

There’s a lot of media flying around the internet with violence. This video involves no violence at all, but I think that it successfully explains why African Americans have every possible reason to be upset - the US system has been working exactly as designed - by white supremacist slave owners and their descendants.

Antonio French’s Twitter Account

Look. It’s been a few years since I taught this at school, but I can talk about this all day. It’s important to understand just how bad things are over there for African-Americans and I haven’t even touched on indigenous Americans. I think the vast majority of people would like to see things improve in the US as well as all around the world, and there are many different ways to do this right now including donating your money or your time, but a good basis is always education. We all need to teach ourselves why this situation is the way it is and why it is wrong. Without that it’s difficult to work to improve things.

So focusing on black lives in the USA:

I would recommend watching 13th on Netflix. It’s an award-winning documentary which will explain systemic and historic racism in the USA and how that has compounded how far behind black people are as time has gone on.

Or the movie Loving which dramatises a couple who were arrested on the basis of those miscegenation laws in the 1960s.

And if you want to read a book, to find out about how engrained racism is in the justice system, a good book on that would be Just Mercy by Bryan Stevenson. It takes you up to around about 2010. Or again watch the film with Jamie Foxx and Michael B. Jordan. It misses out some stuff, but you get a flavour of what has been going on.

Each tiny concession has to be fought for tooth and nail and the road is paved with the damaged and ended lives of the ‘uppity blacks’ who dared to fight for what they deserved.

Don’t feel guilty for starting small and just watching some TV to learn more. If you can then recommend more people in your social sphere watch them too, the difference you can make can become great.

I heard about this book when I saw the film adaptation way back in the late 00s. It was a movie aimed at children that looked like a post-apocalyptic cross between The Borrowers and The Wind Singer. The costumes were straight out of The Borrowers and the arbitrary allocation of your future by the state, even against your express wishes, was The Wind Singer. I thoroughly enjoyed it, even if it didn’t do that well, plus the cast was incredible. So, I thought I’d give the original source book a go when the audiobook was available on Libby.

So if my mishmash of references doesn’t help you, let me talk about the premise more plainly. A group of scientists, engineers and other professionals and intellectuals referred to as ‘The Builders’ have constructed a vast underground city called Ember in anticipation of a vast unnamed disaster. They have given the first Mayor a metal case that their successors will inherit and continue to pass on with instructions for how to leave the city once that disaster has passed in an estimated two centuries. However, during the intervening time the case ends up lost and unremembered.

The story follows two friends Lina Mayfleet and Doon Barrow who live in Ember about 240 years after the foundation of the city. They graduate school and are allocated their jobs for life by the Mayor. Lina is made a ‘Pipeworks Labourer’ and Doon a ‘Messenger’, both jobs that they each hate, leading to a secret swap between them.

In the course of the story, the two friends discover the increased dilapidation of the city, shortage of rations, as well as corruption among its leadership, that forces them to look for a solution to their increasingly difficult lives. Their curiosity is raised further when Lina’s baby sister finds a metal box in a cluttered room and starts chewing on its contents.

This book, released in 2003, is the first part of The Book of Ember Series by Jeanne DuPrau. I had only known her for this novel, but it turns out she has also published other short stories, essays and non-fiction books. I haven’t read any of the other books in this series, but this book can definitely be read on its own as its story has a clear end state with no immediate cliffhangers, although I may eventually read the next if I find it in the library.

There are many things I liked about this book, including the use of language and how it is supposed to have changed over time. Words fall into disuse over decades and centuries in a different environment, so in this story, words like ‘clouds’ aren’t understood and ‘elephants’ are not described accurately as nobody alive in Ember has ever seen one and all materials that suggest a past life outside the city have been destroyed. One example can be found when Lina is using her most treasured possessions, her colouring pencils. Wouldn’t it be strange, she thought, to have a blue sky? But she liked the way it looked. It would be beautiful - a blue sky. The change in the use of language from our own in a fantasy or sci-fi world is one of my favourite things when reading a new story, especially when it’s an evolution or offshoot of our own, for example in Leviathan Wakes by James S.A. Corey. I enjoy when authors have clearly given some thought to it!

The relationship between the two protagonists is fun to follow. Although more time is given to Lina than to Doon, providing her with a bit more solidity, they are both characters we can root for. The relationship between them is believable and their complementary strengths and foibles make them a satisfying pair as they move from acquaintances to real friends.

Ember as the setting is a wonderful canvas for the story to take place upon. The increasingly decrepit and disintegrating city is brought to life by DuPrau and is almost completely believable. It feels very lived in - obviously over-lived in - to the point that everything is jury-rigged with ever-increasing ingenuity to keep it working. This is the best part of the story for me and if I could create a world as lived in and believable as this one in my own stories, I would be very happy.

When I started reading, I was really excited to hear more about the different Builders who created the underground city. I wanted to know more about the efforts that they put into creating a habitable settlement with plans for moving inhabitants in, generations living there and then a plan for leaving. That sounds pretty impressive to me! Instead, this is a children’s novel, so that isn’t the story we got here. It glosses over that kind of complexity and instead, we get the child-eye view of the city and find out how things are not as they should be. It’s a definite choice and it still works, I was just left wanting more.

With it being a children’s novel, there are some issues that stretch plausibility. There are no signs of population control, people who have left to seek life outside Ember, armed coups, written diaries or anything else likely to occur over 300 years of people living in a contained town. Either the government apparatus is excellent at silencing any subversive elements, or the population is remarkably passive. However, if you are looking for an adult book about that, then Wool by Hugh Howey is a good place to start!

Lastly, the way in which the characters made decisions that seemed at odds with common sense to move the plot in direction that it needed to go. Now, I get that I am clearly a cynical 30-something, re-reading this book, but when I read it the first time, I did roll my eyes at it too. Perhaps I was a cynical kid as well? I appreciate that this is a children’s novel, but there are moments that both the children and other adults that should know better, really do stretch believability.

Overall, I think that this is a good book. I can pick at it all day, but that would not be fair, based on the target audience. I guess that is the difference between a children’s novel and a young adult book? I think this is a step below where I am aiming for the story I’m working on, but I’ll definitely be taking that focus on language and setting to make the environment feel realistic and lived in! The premise, setting and characters are enough to easily recommend it to anyone around 10-12 years old.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️★

There is now a new Star Trek series that follows along from the Star Trek of my childhood. Patrick Stewart, Brent Spiner, Jeri Ryan and others are back in a new series. I never thought I’d see the day! At the same time, today is Brexit Day, and I was reminded of something I wrote soon after the referendum itself back in 2016. It seemed appropriate to return to it.

We are a week since the In/Out referendum in which a majority of British voters supported leaving the European Union. I had not read much of the media leading up to that date as I knew which way I was voting and why. Days before the referendum itself I had dialled into the media to see where things were. Suddenly things were not the way I expected them. I knew it was going to be close, but I always assumed that the result was in favour of the “Remain” campaign. How wrong I was! I have lived within the privileged bubble of being born in the late 1980s with Britain’s EU membership a matter without question. It gives me the ability to travel to parts of Europe without messing about with a visa and the opportunity to live and work there, and with the increasingly interconnected continent of Europe on my doorstep. I could get a cheap flight on Friday night and back on Monday morning and be back in time for work. While I was there I was able to meet other Europeans who were also taking advantage of the benefits of the European Union to do the same thing. Perhaps this is why the younger voters felt so disappointed by the result. Something which offered them such potential benefits could be removed by the decision of others. Many of whom were voting for such different reasons as to stick it to then-Prime Minister David Cameron, to vote against the government, to curb immigration, to stop paying money into an organisation that gives us nothing back. There are many reasons people voted to leave, but I didn’t agree with a single one of them, so I guess that makes me opposed to the views of a great many people in the UK. That realisation was an interesting one. In the aftermath of the vote, I was left to work out why I felt as utterly bereft as I did. I felt worse than at any other major voting result in my life. No general election is that bad, as there will be another one in a handful of years. I think there are two different reasons for it. First, it highlights the privilege of being young, educated and well-travelled. The media has made mention of the young intelligentsia who overwhelmingly voted to remain, while others used a vote to complain about a wide variety of issues, few if any were actually related to the EU itself! The difference between the young and the old and the more and less educated is clear. Although, interestingly not as clear as the views on the death penalty. That’s a separate, scarier issue. Anyway, I feel both vindicated I made the correct choice, and then guilty for feeling disappointed in those that voted for the opposite when it appears a select group of media elements pushed hard for this result. Those opinions were clearly based on a logic that I didn’t have. Perhaps they thought they were doing the right thing for themselves and their families and therefore, who am I to say they’re wrong? Are my experiences or the knowledge I had somehow worth more than theirs? The second is that this vote and its resulting apparent licence for violence and bigotry triggered a deep-seated belief that this was a ‘step backwards’ for our journey into creating a ‘better world,’ whatever that is! From a young age, too much science fiction in general and Star Trek episodes, in particular, had taught me the way to a better world is for everyone to work together within large organisations, with the free flow of workers and families. The more people travel and meet each other, the more they can see that as a single species, all of our cultures are very similar, our similarities are far more important than our differences and that we don’t have to fear each other quite so much. And Roddenberry’s initial idea of a society that didn’t have any currency — that people worked for the common good of all — really showed how utopian that society was! This vote showed me how fear and anger overrode any sense of togetherness and common understanding. It showed how a group of small nations that form one country was so easily splintered into voting so differently from each other, with the larger cities like London, Birmingham and Manchester along with Northern Ireland and Scotland all going one way, and the rest of England and Wales going the other. That splintering shows the clear divides that had perhaps always been just under the surface, but it showed me just how far away we are from that global internationalist future I have always dreamed of, to allow humanity to progress further and faster. That future is still available to us, but increasingly under threat. And in my mind has moved further from being within my own lifetime. That makes me disappointed, as I’m impatient to see that future develop in front of my eyes. Perhaps I should set my sights lower.

Reading it back, my feelings have not changed on the matter. The depth of our understanding of the issues around traditional media and who owns it, money and where it resides, taxes paid and unpaid, foreign and social media interference and divisions have only increased. We know where this fight was won and lost.

So I will hold my family more tightly. My lost citizenship will not mean a single lost friendship, and hopefully that international future I grew up dreaming of may still come to pass. Who knows, perhaps my son will see it?