Editing Robert A. Heinlein (section)

===Race===
Heinlein grew up in the era of [[racial segregation in the United States]] and wrote some of his most influential fiction at the height of the [[Civil Rights Movement]]. He explicitly made the case for using his fiction not only to predict the future but also to educate his readers about the value of [[racial equality]] and the importance of racial tolerance.<ref>{{cite journal | last=Erisman|first= Fred|title=Robert Heinlein's Case for Racial Tolerance, 1954–1956|journal= Extrapolation|volume= 29|issue= 3|year=1988|pages= 216–226}}</ref> His early novels were ahead of their time both in their explicit rejection of racism and in their inclusion of protagonists of color. In the context of science fiction before the 1960s, the mere existence of characters of color was a remarkable novelty, with green occurring more often than brown.<ref>{{cite book|last=Pearson|first= Wendy|chapter=Race relations|title=The Greenwood Encyclopedia of Science Fiction and Fantasy: Themes, Works, and Wonders, Volume 2|publisher=[[Greenwood Publishing Group]]|year= 2005|pages= 648–50}}</ref> For example, his 1948 novel ''Space Cadet'' explicitly uses aliens as a metaphor for minorities. The 1947 story "[[Jerry Was a Man]]" uses enslaved genetically modified chimpanzees as a symbol for Black Americans fighting for civil rights.<ref>{{cite web | last=Greeley | first=Henry T. | title=BioSci Fi: "Jerry Was a Man", Robert A. Heinlein, 1947 | website=Stanford Law School | date=October 17, 2012 | url=https://law.stanford.edu/2012/10/17/lawandbiosciences-2012-10-17-science-fiction-law-and-biosciences-jerry-was-a-man-robert-a-heinlein-1947/ | access-date=April 8, 2025}}</ref> In his novel ''[[The Star Beast (novel)|The Star Beast]]'', the ''de facto'' foreign minister of the Terran government is an undersecretary, a Mr. Kiku, who is from Africa.<ref name="Star31">{{cite book |last=Heinlein |first=Robert A. |title=The Star Beast |url=https://archive.org/details/starbeast00hein |url-access=limited |year=1954 |publisher=Charles Schribner's Sons |page=[https://archive.org/details/starbeast00hein/page/31 31]}}</ref> Heinlein explicitly states his skin is "ebony black" and that Kiku is in an [[arranged marriage]] that is happy.<ref name="Star249">{{cite book |last=Heinlein |first=Robert A. |title=The Star Beast |url=https://archive.org/details/starbeast00hein |url-access=limited |year=1954 |publisher=Charles Schribner's Sons |page=[https://archive.org/details/starbeast00hein/page/249 249]}}</ref>

In a number of his stories, Heinlein challenges his readers' possible racial preconceptions by introducing a strong, sympathetic character, only to reveal much later that he or she is of African or other ancestry. In several cases, the covers of the books show characters as being light-skinned when the text states or at least implies that they are dark-skinned or of African ancestry.{{#Tag:Ref |The reference in ''Tunnel in the Sky'' is subtle and ambiguous, but at least one college instructor who teaches the book reports that some students always ask, "Is he [[African American|black]]?" (see<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.heinleinsociety.org/rah/faqworks.html |title=FAQ: Heinlein's Works |publisher=Heinleinsociety.org |access-date=May 16, 2012 |archive-date=April 22, 2019 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20190422034221/http://www.heinleinsociety.org/rah/faqworks.html |url-status=dead }}</ref>).

The Heinlein scholar and critic James Gifford (see bibliography) states: "A very subtle point in the book, one found only by the most careful reading and confirmed by Virginia Heinlein, is that Rod Walker is black. The most telling clues are Rod's comments about Caroline Mshiyeni being similar to his sister, and the 'obvious' (to all of the other characters) pairing of Rod and Caroline."<ref>{{cite book|author=J. Daniel Gifford|title=Robert A. Heinlein: a reader's companion|url= https://books.google.com/books?id=2V6vAAAAIAAJ|year=2000|publisher=Nitrosyncretic Press|isbn=978-0-9679874-1-5|page=201|access-date= February 16, 2016|archive-date=January 1, 2017|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20170101204016/https://books.google.com/books?id=2V6vAAAAIAAJ|url-status=live}}</ref>}} Heinlein repeatedly denounced racism in his nonfiction works, including numerous examples in ''Expanded Universe''.

Heinlein reveals in ''[[Starship Troopers]]'' that the novel's protagonist and narrator, [[Johnny Rico (Starship Troopers)|Johnny Rico]], the formerly disaffected scion of a wealthy family, is [[Filipino people|Filipino]], actually named "Juan Rico" and speaks [[Tagalog language|Tagalog]] in addition to English.

Race was a central theme in some of Heinlein's fiction. The most prominent example is ''[[Farnham's Freehold]]'', which casts a [[white (people)|white]] family into a future in which white people are the slaves of cannibalistic black rulers. In the 1941 novel ''[[Sixth Column]]'' (also known as ''The Day After Tomorrow''), a white resistance movement in the United States defends itself against an invasion by an Asian fascist state (the "Pan-Asians") using a "super-science" technology that allows ray weapons to be tuned to specific races. The idea for the story was pushed on Heinlein by editor [[John W. Campbell]] and the story itself was based on a then-unpublished story by Campbell, and Heinlein wrote later that he had "had to re-slant it to remove racist aspects of the original story line" and that he did not "consider it to be an artistic success".<ref>Robert A. Heinlein, ''Expanded Universe'', foreword to ''Solution Unsatisfactory'', p. 93 of Ace paperback edition.</ref><ref>Citations at [[Sixth Column]].</ref> However, the novel prompted a heated debate in the scientific community regarding the plausibility of developing [[ethnic bioweapon]]s.<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Appel|first=J. M.|date=July 1, 2009|title=Is all fair in biological warfare? The controversy over genetically engineered biological weapons|url=https://jme.bmj.com/content/35/7/429|journal=Journal of Medical Ethics|language=en|volume=35|issue=7|pages=429–432|doi=10.1136/jme.2008.028944|issn=0306-6800|pmid=19567692|s2cid=1643086 }}</ref> John Hickman, writing in the ''European Journal of American Studies'', identifies examples of anti–East Asian racism in some of Heinlein's works, particularly ''Sixth Column''.<ref>{{cite journal | journal=European Journal of American Studies | title=Yellow Perils of Robert Heinlein | volume=16 | issue=1 | date=Spring 2021 | last=Hickman | first=John | doi=10.4000/ejas.16749 | doi-access=free }}</ref>

Heinlein summed up his attitude toward people of any race in his essay "[[Our Noble, Essential Decency]]" thus:

{{Cquote|And finally, I believe in my whole race—yellow, white, black, red, brown—in the honesty, courage, intelligence, durability, and goodness of the overwhelming majority of my brothers and sisters everywhere on this planet. I am proud to be a human being.}}