Space Is The Place - Racial Discourse

Racial Discourse

The space-age Garveyite message of Ra is ambiguous at times and metaphors employed are hard to interpret: He plays his music, which he describes as his instrument of transportation, to a Black and White audience. Of the three people shown applying to Ra's "employment agency", two are White, one of whom is a blonde woman attempting to seduce Ra. The Overseer feels he lost the duel only when he is left by Fey and Tania (Erika Leder), the major White figure in the film. Ra also takes "Chili Pepper" (Sinthia Ayala) a non-Black Hispanic prostitute to his spaceship along with a number of Black people who submit to his message, including radicalised youths from Oakland and a petty pimp junkie. Jimmy Fey is inclined to act like a buffoon until his "Black parts" are taken by Ra. After that, he becomes well-meaning and self-confident, addressing to The Overseer in the Standard American English he had kept for radio broadcasts and in a humiliating way, losing his AAVE. The character of Tania is also problematic. She is originally a nurse who also lures her Black colleague Candy (Barbara Deloney) to the world of sex and money led by The Overseer. She seems to enjoy his company and being pimped by him but in a following scene, she is depicted as victimised. Finally, Tania (apparently also a favourite of Fey) leaves The Overseer, calling him a "nigger" and goes with Fey.