whiteheadrailroadscienceandtech

[whiteheadrailroadscienceandtech]

Colson Whitehead’s The Underground Railroad depicts the effects of science and technology on humanity, but it’s not a pretty picture.

Science and technology has led to humanities progression, but at what cost? The Underground Railroad’s depiction of these need to be applied to the twenty first century.

Reading time: 3 mins

Photo by @felipepelaquim on Unsplash. 

When I first read The Underground Railroad (2016) I understood that I was reading a novel that focused on racial issues. I understood the importance of the industrial revolution and the use of the railroad in the novel’s narrative. However, I did not expect to read and learn about the way science and technology could be used to wipe out an entire race.

This novel not only draws attention to our history of racism, which Whitehead spent a long time researching but draws attention to humanities use of science and technology. The Underground Railroad warns us against how far humanity is taking science and in what ways it’s used. During Cora’s time in South Carolina, she comes across a ‘strategic sterilization’ program. This is a result of rational scientific inquiry when it is detached from ethics.

‘America has imported and bred so many Africans that in many states the whites are outnumbered…with strategic sterilization – first the women but both sexes in time – we could free them from bondage without fear that they’d butcher us in our sleep.’

There were racial sciences that intended to prove that black people were an inferior race. I think Whitehead importantly exposes this side of science and brings up moral questions that should be applied to genetic intervention. Although it is incredible how far science has come, I want you to think about the idea that not all progression in this area progresses humanity. Whitehead says in an interview that there is ‘a sinister purpose behind all of these progressive programs’. This novel should be an initiation to us to have a more critical view of science and whether some areas are ethical or not.

The Railroad

Although the underground railroad itself is fictional, it represents the possibilities technology has produced for humanity. In another interview, Whitehead said: ‘I was trying to explore how technology changes our culture, our idea of ourselves.’ The railroad connects people and opens up the world for exploration and more possibilities. If you compare this to the internet, there’s not much difference. But has the internet gone too far? Are we too modern?

Photo by Ludovic Toinel on Unsplash. 

When I think of modernity, I think of science, technology and the progression we as humans have made. However, when we think of the origination of modernity, it’s common to just think of the industrial revolution and the physical possibilities it produced, rather than the people that were involved. Whitehead demonstrates how the black community were kept outside of modernity, being denied freedom and full citizenship. He shows us how actually, black people contributed massively to the creation of our modern world and how slavery is at the centre of modernity.

When Cora asks who made the underground railroad she’s replied with: 

“Who do you think made it? Who makes everything?”

Although it is not stated directly, it becomes apparent that it was the black community that created the railroad.  

Photo by Cesar Gamez on Unsplash. 

Whitehead’s description of the ‘hungry boiler fed with blood’, brings up questions around what needs to be and has been sacrificed to create technological possibilities. Although he answers this with: ‘the ruthless engine of cotton required its fuel of African bodies.’ I think this implies far more and should be applied to the impact factories are having on our climate. We are constantly taking from the earth’s resources for the benefit of humanity’s progression, but not enough attention is being given to the effects of this.

Interestingly, Whitehead also uses personification to allow his readers to see the underground railroad as more than just a machine. The railroad and the train become characters in themselves:

‘The black mouths of the gigantic tunnel opened at either end.’

‘He slapped the side of the boiler. “This old girl, she bucks.”’

This personification takes away the practical side of the machinery and instead means we can view it for what it is, what it gives and takes.

If we personified all our technology would we still think of it in the same way?