Editing Octavia E. Butler (section)

=== Critique of present-day hierarchies ===
In multiple interviews and essays, Butler explained her view of humanity: inherently flawed by an innate tendency towards [[Social stratification|hierarchical thinking]] which leads to [[tribalism]], [[caste]], intolerance, violence and, if not checked, the ultimate destruction of our species.<ref name="Gant" /><ref name="Pfeiffer" /><ref name="AEW">"Butler, Octavia E.", ''American Ethnic Writers'', Revised edn. Vol. 1. Pasadena, CA: Salem Press, 2009. 168–175.</ref>

"Simple [[pecking order|peck-order]] bullying", she wrote in her essay "A World without Racism",<ref name="WWR">[https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=5245679 "A World without Racism."] ''NPR Weekend Edition Saturday''. September 1, 2001.</ref> "is only the beginning of the kind of hierarchical behavior that can lead to [[racism]], [[sexism]], [[ethnocentrism]], [[Class discrimination|classism]], and all the other 'isms' that cause so much suffering in the world." Her stories, then, often replay humanity's domination of the weak by the strong as a type of [[parasitism]].<ref name="AEW" /> These "others", whether aliens, vampires, superhuman, or slave masters, find themselves defied by a protagonist who embodies difference, diversity, and change, so that, as John R. Pfeiffer notes, "In one sense [Butler's] fables are trials of solutions to the self-destructive condition in which she finds mankind."<ref name="Pfeiffer" />

{{quote box
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| width = 20em
| quote = Embrace diversity<br />
Unite—<br />
or be divided,<br />
robbed,<br />
ruled,<br />
killed<br />
By those who see you as prey.<br />
Embrace diversity<br />
Or be destroyed.
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| source = —From "Earthseed: The Books of the Living," ''Parable of the Sower''.
}}