During the late 1960s, a controversial book circulated in black college and university dorm rooms. It was discussed in whispers; debated in shouts. The books on students’ desks may have been “The Autobiography of Malcolm X,” or “Soul on Ice,” or “The Wretched of the Earth.” But the book that was read late at night was one whose title was as politically incorrect then as it is now: “The Nigger Bible.”Today, copies of the book fetch as much as $170 on Amazon.com. I’m glad I kept the one I bought for 95 cents (plus tax) in 1969.Written by Robert H. de Coy, “The Nigger Bible” was published by Holloway House, a Los Angeles outfit that was already notorious for an earlier book called “Pimp: The Story of my Life,” by Iceberg Slim. That was another book black college students talked about, but seldom admitted reading.“The Nigger Bible” was a collection of essays, stories and meditations on the state of what de Coy called “Black-kind.” He also appropriated the “N-word” in a manner that anticipated the way it is used today by black rappers and comedians. “The Nigger Bible” covered a wide range of topics, from integration to Black Power to Mardi Gras. One of the book’s chapters qualifies as science fiction, which is why I’m discussing it on this site. I know you were wondering …The chapter’s title is: “A Drama in Nigger Neurosis, or Six Militants Among the Martians.” In it, six black American leaders are abducted by Martians. These Martians are not “little green men.” They’re little black men.As de Coy describes them, the “texture of their … skin was lined, wrinkled, rough. Their color was carbon black so it was quite difficult to be certain. Their lips were thin, drawn tight and severe, which made them appear somewhat grotesque. Here in America, I thought while observing, they might be mistaken for Niggers except that their features were sharp, somewhat aquiline. In a squeeze, they might have passed for native Africans of some kind. But those drawn lips were so unusually unnatural.”The Martians have taken the black leaders onto a spacecraft to aid in the aliens’ research into Earth’s societies. Black American society is of particular interest to them, but not for reasons you might think. The abducted leaders, who include a Congressman, civil-rights leaders of secular and spiritual stripe, a newspaper owner and an educator, seek to convince the Martians of their dedication to the cause. But, through a device called a “recordoscope” that is something like YouTube, their inconsistency and hypocrisy is laid bare.After hearing all and exposing all, one of the Martians asks the group a provocative question:“Tell me, in your quest for Negro integration into the Caucasian social order, do you seek the goal of complete absorption, with loss of identity, among White people? And if we Martians arrived, establishing a superior black society, would you join us and reject integration?”The reply is silence.“No answer? No reaction,” the Martian says. “Then we have no further questions.”The abductees are returned, unharmed, to Earth. No one says anything about the abduction because, as de Coy puts it in the last sentence of the story: “Who would believe a Nigger who said that the Martians were an advanced race of Black-kind people?”Who, indeed?I wonder whether this story, “N-word” and all, should be accepted today as a classic early piece of black SF literature. Or should it, as well as the book that contains it, be relegated to the closet.I’m inclined to accept it.How about you?
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