The Space Traders

On January 1, 2000, extraterrestrials arrive on Earth and offer the United States gold, safe nuclear power, and other technological advances in exchange for all of its black citizens. They require a decision by January 17 (Martin Luther King Jr. Day). Gleason Golightly, a prominent black conservative, is summoned to participate in the Cabinet's discussion of the proposed trade. Golightly, ordinarily an "Uncle Tom" on racial matters, is adamantly against the Trade for moral reasons, but the completely white Cabinet discounts his moral objections because they believe the Trade will fix the United States' practical environmental and economic problems.

Later, Golightly attends a meeting of black community members. He suggests that if black people pretend that they are getting the best part of the deal, white people will oppose it out of envy. A preacher responds that Golightly's understanding of white psychology has merit, but he cannot go along with such a cynical ploy, and the group votes instead for boycotts and protests. A prominent group of American Jews forms the "Anne Frank Committee," intending to smuggle blacks out of the country before the Trade, but the FBI publishes the names of the Committee's members and they are forced into hiding themselves. A Constitutional amendment is proposed, authorizing Congress to induce blacks into "special service," with language modeled on the "Selective Service Act of 1918 [sic]"; a national referendum on the amendment is scheduled for January 15. The Supreme Court rejects several legal challenges to the referendum process, citing as precedent the majority opinion in Giles v. Harris (1903). White televangelists line up in favor of the Trade.

Finally, on January 15, the national referendum is held and the Trade is approved by a 70/30 margin. On January 17, the black population of the United States (including Golightly himself) are rounded up and sent, naked and in chains, into the holds of the extraterrestrials' ships "as their forebears had arrived."[1]

The story was adapted for television in 1994 by director Reginald Hudlin and writer Trey Ellis as part of the HBO anthology TV movie Cosmic Slop, which presented three Twilight Zone style stories from a black perspective. Robert Guillaume starred as Golightly and Ronald Reagan impersonator Jay Koch played the space trader spokesman, whom Bell's story described as speaking in the "comforting tones of a former U.S. president."[2]

Judge Alex Kozinski has criticized the story as being a sign of how Bell's philosophy precludes discourse, citing the example of how in the story, American Jews would only help black people out of a desire not to be the lowest social group in the US.[3]

In the run-up to the 2012 U.S. presidential election, the story became a vehicle for political controversy. In The Atlantic, Conor Friedersdorf replied, arguing that the story's critics "would do well to acknowledge that for many decades of American history, including years during Professor Bell's life, a majority of Americans would have voted in favor of trading blacks for fantastic wealth, unlimited energy, and an end to pollutants."[4]

• Compromise of 1877
• Treaty of New Echota

• "The Space Traders" title listing at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database
• "The Space Traders", full text of the short story