Diversity and Racism

Diversity and racism are explored throughout the work through multiple points of view, such as literature and education. Octavia was born and raised in a racially mixed neighborhood in 1947, a time when segregation was prevalent throughout the American South and other areas of the country. Her parents migrated from the deep South and did have experiences with Jim Crow. Octavia, however, has a much more open-minded approach to race and her ability to achieve existing as separate from her race. She “never went to a segregated school or lived in a segregated neighborhood, so I never had the notion that black people, or any other ethnic or culture type, made up the world” (48). Octavia’s experiences with diversity informed her writing because she wanted to highlight representation in the science fiction genre where she did not see women or Black people as important characters or consumers...