**This text was originally published as the introduction to Bivalent. The feedback I have received about it has been unanimous: readers believe that it illuminates the whole series, and they wish I had included it in the first book. I am not yet ready to print another edition of Amphibious, but I am posting these notes on my website to grant access to readers who may like to read it before starting the Evolution of Control series. Enjoy! 🤗**

Introduction

Readers have been asking me about how the world came to be the way that it is in the Evolution of Control series and about the specifics of how the racial classification system works. So, I decided to make available my notes on these subjects. I hope that, through them, readers will better understand the world that I am describing in Evolution of Control.

It may come as no surprise that I built this literary world through reflecting on my experience as a woman whose parents come from two different American racial minorities. As such, I have a unique perspective on race and racism, which I hope will prove a helpful contribution to the discourses currently in play. That said, readers will likely identify some aspects of this literary world as fundamentally racist. I write descriptively about racial hierarchy not because I believe that the idea has merit but because I perceive, all around me, evidence of internalized racial hierarchy in people’s actions and words.

Moreover, my experience as a biracial person has opened my eyes to the fact that racism can take many different forms. I know with certainty that anybody and everybody can be racist, even if they do not mean to be. Sometimes, it is in our desire simply to have a place in the world, to seek the security and power of a distinct identity, that we perpetuate racist systems. In Evolution of Control, I challenge the ways that people claim that racial identity is––or should be––formed.

Let’s face it: white supremacy introduced red, black, yellow, brown, and white categories in order to maintain power. Accepting these categories uncritically will never lead to offsetting this power dynamic, despite our best intentions. However, I also understand that dissolving racial categories would not be the answer to our current predicament. Race permeates American reality such that denying its existence would be unproductive. For a social construct, race has frighteningly concrete consequences that affect people’s physical and emotional wellbeing. So, to instigate positive change, we will need to work with existing categories while remaining open to new ways of understanding them. Evolution of Control highlights the flaws in our current system of racial categorization in order that we might seriously reconsider how we conceptualize race and group identity.

I set this series in the late twenty-first century and early twenty-second century to provide some artistic speculation about the logical consequences of internalizing current racial categories. Such internalization occurs either through the acceptance of a hierarchy of race or, equally detrimentally, through the solidification of inherently hierarchical racial categories so that minority cultures may appear relevant or valid enough for dialogue with the majority culture. I hope that the following notes on the literary world of Evolution of Control and its racial classification system will be a helpful resource as you read this series.

The Origin and Rise of Neo-Eugenic Law

Neo-Eugenic law was first mentioned in a dissertation in the early 2030s. Its author was a doctoral student, whose name deserves to be lost to history. This person believed that they were writing a liberating manifesto of world peace. The student came from a majority culture background in the States and was sympathetic to the plight of minority cultures.

Neo-Eugenic law is based on the idea that everybody gets along when everybody knows who they are and how they should interact with each other. This necessitates strong understandings of group identity, which this student proposed should come from the essentialization of existing social categories that carried strong historical and cultural significance. The process of essentialization––the student believed––needed objective guiding factors or else social categories could morph, causing the system to malfunction. The student elected to call upon so-called science (a mangled form of genetics) and mathematics (simple arithmetic) to be the basis of and mechanism by which essentialization should operate.

According to the doctoral student, defined class categories would provide a framework within which each minority group could be understood as a valid, united body in the eyes of the majority culture. This could only work, however, as long as groups kept their blood pure––that is, they had to ensure that their genetic pools were distinct from those of other classes. Thus, the so-called “pureblooded” classes were formed, based on social categories that were salient in the view of the majority culture: white, yellow, brown, and black. Incentives to keep blood pure and measures to disincentivize blood tainting would need to be established in order to guarantee the proper functioning of the system. From these concepts, the idea of the Subclass would later emerge to take on an ugly life of its own.

The doctoral student never successfully defended their thesis. They dropped out of school and later submitted their thesis to an independent publishing house that agreed to publish it out of pity. A decade later, a public interest lawyer found the book at a used book sale. Reading it and being convinced of the truth of its message, this lawyer founded the group that would come to be known as the World Council of Eugenics.

By the time period of Evolution of Control, everyone is obsessed with the concept of blood purity. Although the idea defies science and transcends reason, it drives decisions on every level of society. Under Neo-Eugenic law, to taint blood is condemned; to have impure blood is to exist as a physical reminder of the wrong done; and to join with one of impure blood is to publicly condone what has been condemned as well as to taint one’s own bloodline.

The World Council of Eugenics

The World Council of Eugenics (WCE) began as an American think tank and social mobility group. Their central tenets were based on interpretations of Neo-Eugenic law that were so extreme that the originator of the law denounced the group. While WCE members spoke loftily about the strengthening of communities and the fulfillment of personal identity, their primary motivations were fundamentally wealth and influence.

As the WCE gained more traction, especially among the American social elite, the council became more involved in business transactions. With the membership of leading political figures from around the country and around the globe, the nature of the WCE’s business evolved and diversified. Thus, Neo-Eugenic law spread and morphed to take on new forms in different countries.

At the start of the Evolution of Control series, the WCE is active in the political life of the States as well as in covert operations of governmental and private importance. In addition to covert ops, it has sections in weapons development, research, and trade. Whatever the WCE appears to be doing in the public eye, it is certain that much more is happening beneath the surface.

Hierarchies of class and sex are very important to the organizational structure of the WCE, although much of the time these are kept in place mainly for the sake of appearances since everyone well knows that the best person for a task may be the person least expected by societal standards.

No one knows how many tenets the WCE has. The same tenet is rarely quoted twice, and the tenets always seem to give an authoritative air to an ignorant and opinionated speaker’s utterance.

Geography After the Divisive Round

The Divisive Round was a two year long negotiation that was set in motion to formalize governmental restructuring as different regions of the States adopted or adapted Neo-Eugenic law in an official capacity. In the decades leading up to the Divisive Round, there were multiple waves of migration as people relocated to regions that better matched their sensibilities about interclass relations. People who were not affluent enough to relocate had to remain in place and adapt to new ways of life. The Round was both launched and completed in the 2090s.

While the eastern and western regions of the country had been diverging politically for decades, the Divisive Round formally divided the States into the Eastern and Western States––each of which developed its own federal government. During the time period of Evolution of Control, trade continues between these regions, and their military resources are shared.

The Meridian is a longitudinal line that separates the Eastern States from the Western States. The Eastern States comprises the Northeastern State and the Southeastern State while the Western States comprises the Northwestern, Southwestern, and Midwestern States. All of the states contain districts which can be home to boroughs, towns, villages, and urban centers. Typically, district identity is the most salient for inhabitants of these regions, although state membership does come into play with respect to trade and representation on a federal level. States also tend to set the tone for how their districts will adapt Neo-Eugenic law, although the specifics of this adaptation may vary.

To diverge from its parent state’s adaptation of Neo-Eugenic law, a district may become exempt. This usually incurs some cost, as with Diablo which––because of its refusal to wholly adopt Neo-Eugenic law––is exempt from Western federal financial support and Southwestern State technology subsidies. A district may also be unaffiliated with the WCE, which can only occur if there are no members of the WCE who hold office there. In such districts, it is easier to pass laws in contradiction to the state’s current views without needing to be officially exempt. Some have pointed out that the main difference between unaffiliated and exempt districts is the median salary since, due to a lack of resources and education, poorer districts are often unable to oust WCE-affiliated leadership.

The Classification System

The classification system is a system of racial categorization, which is based on the mythical four major biological races (classes). Proponents of the classification system believe that class is a biological phenomenon, and while there is little to no genetic evidence of this, they depend heavily upon stereotypes of bone structure, facial features, skin color, and hair texture to reinforce social understandings of class. Even at a glance, it is evident that this is a subjective science.

Purity of blood is important in the classification system, and this works on two levels. On the one hand, one maintains purity by associating with and procreating with members of one’s own class. On the other hand, there is an assumed ontological purity that accompanies the possession of features that the majority culture once understood to be ideals. Despite ever-changing ideas of beauty, Neo-Eugenic law set in stone that the purest of the pure features include flaxen hair, blue eyes, and the least melanated skin possible. The combination of this phenotype with verifiable, untainted European lineage bestows upon the possessor the descriptor “wellborn.”

The Four Registered Classes

Throughout time, people have classified the major world races according to their own experience with and exposure to people that they believed to be different from themselves. Thus, there have been various assertions regarding the identities of the major people groups from whom everyone in the world can be said to descend.

According to Neo-Eugenic law, the four registered classes are Classes 1, 2, 3, and 4, based on the very American understanding of white, yellow, brown, and black categories. By the time period of Evolution of Control, a special category––Class 4.14, pronounced “four-one-four”––has been created as well. The Subclass is a legally unregistered, hodgepodge group consisting of the offspring of interclass relationships. All of these categories will be explained in more detail in the following sections.

It is important to remember that the classification system prioritizes purity as defined by Neo-Eugenic law. To be wellborn is to have a class designation of 1.0. Because Class 1 is best born, so to speak, Classes 2-4 are referred to as the “lesser” classes.

“Pureblood” is a term used to describe a member of any of the registered classes (Classes 1-4). Depending on the region, this term may also be used to describe an indigenous person, but it absolutely excludes any member of the Subclass.

Note: “pureblood” and “pureblooded” are equally appropriate for adjectival use.

While class hierarchy exists in both the Eastern and Western States, the East prides itself on creating more opportunities for the lesser pureblooded classes and has experimented with legislation to minimize harshness toward members of the Subclass. In the East, members of pureblooded classes are allowed to legally marry members of other classes, and they may retain their class designation––although their children are still subclass. In all Western districts except for Diablo, interclass marriage is illegal.

Class 1
Class 1 people are said to have their genetic roots mainly in Europe. They are stereotypically believed to have noses that are sharp, prominent, or both. They can have broad brows and deep-set eyes, but not always. They can have very thin lips, but not always. They can have a variety of skin colors ranging from alabaster to olive to tan, and their hair can come in a variety of colors and textures. Darker hair, curlier hair, and more melanated skin will result in a higher class designation which, according to Neo-Eugenic law, is less desirable.

Class 1 people were originally immigrants to the States, and through many ruthless actions they became the dominant majority culture. They have a troubled history of domineering and cruel behavior toward minority groups, a fact which was eventually widely acknowledged. A portion of the Class 1 population rallied to provide reparations for the worst of their ancestors’ deeds and made substantial efforts to change cultural understandings of the class hierarchy. However, another portion of the Class 1 population resisted these efforts mainly because they believed that they were not responsible for the wrongs that their ancestors had enacted upon the lesser classes. Yet another portion of the Class 1 population advocated for the strengthening of hierarchical understandings of class because they believed that their ancestors had been correct in their treatment of the lesser classes. This clash of opinions in the Class 1 community was never resolved, although it lay dormant in some regions for a number of years

A decade before the Divisive Round, the Class 1 community’s clash of opinions reawakened in a bloody conflict. It was to be expected. Those at the top of any hierarchy are loath to relinquish their power. Equality and equity, to them, would mean the loss of power. And no one in their right mind, even the kindest and most honorable, likes to lose power. Because of this complicated history, Class 1 people––much like people of any other class––can have a variety of viewpoints and attitudes regarding class relations and hierarchy.

Slurs: paperwhite; thin skin

Class 2

Class 2 people are said to have their genetic roots mainly in East Asia or Southeast Asia. They are stereotypically believed to have noses that are broad or flat. They can have almond-shaped eyes, sometimes with monolids. Their lips can be thin, but not invisible. They can have a variety of skin colors ranging from pale beige to golden brown to the color of maple syrup, and their hair is typically dark brown or black and straight with a scrub brush texture. Their hair can sometimes be naturally curly, and there is often pressure within the group to artificially straighten curly hair. Darker hair, curlier hair, and more melanated skin will result in a higher class designation which, according to Neo-Eugenic law, is less desirable.

Not long after their entry into the American system as immigrants, Class 2s strove to be associated most with the American majority culture and to distance themselves from the oppressed of the land. Such behavior perpetuated harmful prejudices toward the Class 4.14 community especially, but it also enabled the Class 2s to make a space for themselves on a new middle rung of the class hierarchy. Some Class 2s went so far as to seek, by means of the legal system, to be registered as Class 1s. They were denied Class 1 status. It was perhaps their desire to be most like the Class 1s that fueled their simultaneous hatred for and fascination with the dominant class.

Throughout American history, Class 2s tended to fare better than other lesser classes, but they were not exempt from mistreatment. For instance, they were exploited for cheap labor to build America’s transcontinental railroad system; some were interned in camps during World Wars II and III; and as scapegoats for the pandemics of the mid-twenty-first century, they were subject to violent hate crimes. Sometimes, Class 2s of certain ethnicities were targeted over others, but this was not always the case. Class 2 ethnic labels, other than with respect to foreign affairs, became less and less salient to the majority culture. Thus, strong, public ethnic identification in the Class 2 group began to wane.

In the mid-twenty-first century, Class 2 identity superseded ethnic identity as the most prominent form of identification among members of this group––although within one’s own family, ethnic identity remained well acknowledged and sometimes celebrated. By the time period of Evolution of Control, Class 2s are still known to be among the harshest critics of interclass relations in the States and have become purists within their own class. A 2.1, for instance, can be thought too wellborn for the likes of a 2.6, and families can split over that kind of situation.

Despite the dual role of Class 2s as oppressed oppressors in the history of the States, there were always members of the Class 2 community who acted in opposition to eugenist and purist social pressures. These brave people often paid for their actions through the loss of familial contact, social supports, and sometimes their lives.

Slurs: yellow belly; slanty; slurs carried over from American history

Class 3
Class 3 is likely the most ethnically diverse class in the world. Class 3 people are said to have their roots in Latin America, the Middle East, Southeast Asia, South Asia, Africa, or various islands in the Pacific. In the States, many Class 3s are immigrants or descended from immigrants. Ethnic identity is still very much alive in these groups, and Class 3 is mainly a designation used for official purposes or to identify oneself to a member of another class.

Class 3s can have flat or prominent noses. Their eyes can be any color and almond-shaped, round, or somewhere in between. They can have a variety of skin colors ranging from olive to copper to the various shades of coffee––inclusive of cream, but not always. They can have thin lips or full lips. Their hair can come in a variety of colors and textures. Darker hair, curlier hair, and more melanated skin will result in a higher class designation which, according to Neo-Eugenic law, is less desirable.

With as many ethnicities as are included in this category, there are as many complicated histories to consider with respect to their residence in the States. Throughout American history, Class 3 people have been subject to harassment and violent hate crimes. Generally, prejudice against 3s is rooted in the idea that they are foreigners, but difference of religion is also sometimes cited as a reason for their mistreatment.

Slurs: brownie; a variety of ethnically-based slurs

Class 4
Class 4 people are said to have their roots in Africa. In the States, they are sometimes mistaken for Class 4.14s (described in the next section), but the primary difference between the two groups is that the Class 4s and their ancestors arrived in the States as willing immigrants whereas the ancestors of Class 4.14s were brought to the country as enslaved people.

Ethnic identities remain strong within this class. Class 4s often retain––with pride––a solid connection to their ancestral cultures whether through language, cuisine, or other means. For some proponents of Neo-Eugenic law, these differences are enough to grant Class 4s a slightly more elevated status than 4.14s. However, for others, the similarity in physical appearance between the 4 and 4.14 groups makes 4s likely targets for the same hate crimes that may be directed at the 4.14 community.

Class 4s can have flat or prominent noses. Their eyes can be blue, green, hazel, brown, or black, and almond-shaped, round, or somewhere in between. They can have a variety of skin colors ranging from cream to copper to ebony to blue-black. They can have thin lips or full lips. Their hair can come in a variety of colors ranging from blond to brown to black, and it can also come in a variety of textures. Darker hair, curlier hair, and more melanated skin will result in a higher class designation which, according to Neo-Eugenic law, is less desirable.

Slurs: ethnic-specific slurs; when mistaken for 4.14s, a number of slurs carried over from American history

Class 4.14
The category 4.14 was created to account for the history of people who were descended from enslaved African Americans in the States. Because of this history, there has been tension between Class 4.14s and members of the other classes, most notably Class 1s whose ancestors were the original enslaving group. Although slavery ended centuries before Evolution of Control, violent hate crimes and anti-4.14 prejudice are alive and well. Consequently, the fight for civil rights and equity continues. A step in the right direction did occur, however, in the 2080s with the passing of the Value 4.14 Lives Act, which effectively reduced––but did not completely eliminate––police brutality toward members of the 4.14 community.

Often, Class 4.14s have a hodgepodge ancestry that can be traced primarily to African, European, and Indigenous American people groups. Reflecting on this can be painful, since this hybridity is due, in large part, to enslavers’ abuse of the enslaved. Before the Subclass category was officially formed, there was a rule requiring every person with a 4.14 ancestor within five generations to be considered 4.14. Thus, membership in the group was flexible enough to include people with varying degrees of tainted blood, and the 4.14 community became home to a diversity of phenotypes.

4.14s can have flat or prominent noses. Their eyes can come in any color and can be almond-shaped, round, or somewhere in between. Their skin color can range from alabaster to russet to copper to ebony to blue-black. They can have thin lips or full lips or lips somewhere in between. Their hair can come in a variety of colors ranging from blond to red to brown to black, and it can also come in a variety of textures, generally with some curl but not always. Darker hair, curlier hair, and more melanated skin will result in a higher class designation which, according to Neo-Eugenic law, is less desirable.

While Class 4.14s won great social victories in gaining a more humane lifestyle and establishing the validity of their collective voice before the dominant culture, they had a sort of self-destructive revolution in the mid-twenty-first century in which they claimed that membership in the 4.14 community should no longer be extended to individuals who did not have two registered 4.14 biological parents. The community began cutting off not just those of impure blood but also those of impure associations––that is, members of the Class 4.14 community who procreated with members of another class. The community did this in order to preserve and protect what they believed to be the purity of the 4.14 class and to have legitimate grounds for dialogue with other pureblooded groups.

At the start of Evolution of Control, the range of phenotypes within this class is as wide as ever, but only the immediate offspring of two Class 4.14 people will be registered as Class 4.14.

Slurs: blam; slurs carried over from American history

The Subclass
Subclass people are descended from biological parents of differing classes. They can have their roots in any region and any people group. They are known to have a variety of phenotypes and can often have a similar physical appearance to members of any of the other classes, even if they are not descended from those classes.

Unlike purebloods, members of the Subclass are unregistered. This means that they can move across district boundaries with relative ease because no governing bodies within the States count subclass people in their percentage requirements. However, not being registered bars subclass people from a number of activities and opportunities, depending on the region. They and their families are often shunned, harassed, and sometimes harmed by proponents of Neo-Eugenic law who view the Subclass as a threat to the classification system on which so much of their social reality is based.

Subclass people, if they are fortunate enough to maintain some connection to their extended family, must keep a clear division in their mind between their family and the rest of their heritage communities. Even though their family might accept them, they cannot expect the privilege and security afforded to registered members of a pureblood class. While members of each of the lesser pureblood classes can make a case for how class stratification puts them at a disadvantage, they often overlook the great advantage of being recognized as a registered member of one’s own group for social and financial protection. Subclass people are often denied these protections. And although members of their heritage groups tend to assume that subclass people can approximate this kind of protection by blending in––or passing––as a member of another class, this route is unreliable at best and, frankly, anathema to many members of the Subclass who harbor great love for their family and heritages.

Subclass people who are able to pass for one or the other of their parents’ classes will sometimes do so in the hopes of receiving partial social protection. They will never be officially registered, so they will remain exempt from certain opportunities––especially those offered by the government. However, they may receive the social benefits that come with acceptance in one of their heritage communities.

In the Western States, the descendants of a subclass person will always be subclass. This is due to the belief that blood cannot be purified once it has been tainted. By the time of Evolution of Control, some districts in the Eastern States have come up with a plan to offer subclass individuals a chance to reenter their heritage communities: through marriage to a person of one of their parents’ classes, as long as that parent is a pureblood.

Proper notation: A subclass person is a member of the Subclass, and they have a subclass designation.

Slurs: subber; slurs having to do with one’s heritage communities

Indigenous People
Indigenous people are treated differently across districts and across the world. In the States, there is a tragic history of genocide and oppression of the indigenous people. Some districts make more substantial efforts than others to give reparations to the indigenous people, but those reparations may seem to do little in the face of repeated offenses including withholding of resources, taking of land, overlooked injustices, and a blatant lack of respect for human lives.

There are many groups registered under the label “Indigenous,” even in the States alone. While it is commonly believed that the indigenous people in the States migrated across a land bridge from Asia long ago, their origins remain a mystery.

There is no single designated phenotype that reliably indicates descent from indigenous people groups. Indigenous people can have skin colors ranging from alabaster to tan to copper to blue-black. Their noses can be sharp or broad. Their lips can be thin or full. Their hair can range from blond to brown to red to black, and it can be straight or wavy or curly. Their eyes can be almond-shaped or rounder and can be blue, green, hazel, brown, or black.

In many areas of the States, people are so steeped in a four-class mindset that they do not give much thought to indigenous people at all. When this happens, an indigenous person is likely to be subject to the viewer’s best estimation of class designation.

It could be said that Indigenous Americans are no strangers to eugenism. Blood quantum, a colonial imposition, was instituted centuries ago as a way to control and designate tribal membership. In this case, both estimated phenotypes and mathematics came into play as the dominant culture attempted to essentialize social categories.

Similarly to those officially represented in the four-class system, indigenous communities may take different views of blood quantum as it may restrict or serve them, relatively speaking, in their quest for survival.

Slurs: landlord; slurs carried over from the past couple of centuries of indigenous peoples’ history

Calculating Class Designation and Subclass Designation

It is easy to calculate one’s class designation. One simply takes the average of their biological parents’ class designations. For instance, if one has a parent with the designation Class 3.5 and a parent with the designation Class 3.3, then this person’s class designation is Class 3.4. The parents, by marrying and/or procreating within their own class, are said to have “kept the average” (see motto below).

Calculating subclass designation is slightly more complicated. If one has a Class 1.0 father and a mother of some lesser class, that person must divide the mother’s class designation by the father’s to get their subclass designation. For instance, if one has a Class 1.0 father and a Class 3.5 mother, that person’s subclass designation is Subclass 3.5.

If the father is not Class 1.0, the person’s subclass designation is calculated by adding the class designations of the parents. For instance, if one has a Class 3.5 parent and a Class 4.2 parent, that person’s subclass designation is Subclass 7.7.

This old motto is taught to children in State-sponsored schools to help them to understand the hierarchy and mechanics of the classification system:

Four is lower than three, than two, than one, since adding is subtraction
So, we keep the peace with our division, dividing without fractions
Everything divided by one is the same, and same divided by same is whole
Keep the average, keep the peace, keep control!