Blog Group D

One of the most interesting things I noticed after reading this story was how, even after almost every single race on earth was destroyed, people still continued to hate one another based on their physical appearences. This ties in with our class discussion today about Critical Race Theory, which promotes the idea that race is a socially constructed concept. While there are still white people alive in the world after the disease has killed of hundreds of people, everyone is aware that those who are alive have only survived due to a percentage of African American blood in their veins. This being the case, there is essentially one race left on the whole planet, yet the story ends with "white people" shooting at Harold. People are continuing the idea of not only race itself (though there is but one race left), but also the idea of racism and all the hatred and violence that is associated with it in the midst of a worldwide epidemic caused by the very ideas and beliefs these people continue to follow. Because of this, I think it's quite ironic that the story ends with the phrase "The world had started over." To me, this doesn't seem to be the case at all. The world may have "started over" in a literal sense, but socially, it appears that people still have the same mindset that they always have. I think maybe that this story could be considerded less a critque on racsim and white supremacy, but rather a warning of what could happen if the hatred from racism continues - while it was a white supremacy group that originally created the disease, it was a black scientist who switched the disease's target rather than neutralizing it and avoiding the conflict and loss of life all together. I think this story can be interpreted more as a warning of things to come rather than simply a criticism of white racists.