Alienation and Aliens: A Comparative Study of Narratives of Abduction in Historical African and UFO Experiences

Abstract

Abstract This article examines the racial dimensions of UFO abduction narratives by comparing the structural elements of these narratives with historical accounts of African enslavement. It is suggested that UFO abduction narratives from White Americans, which make up an overwhelming majority of such accounts, comes from collective feelings of widespread culpability for the enslavement and profiting from African persons. It is suggested that the UFO abduction experience is a way to overcome such pervasive feelings of guilt by establishing a new power dynamic that reverses the roles of victim and victimizer and mirrors closely historical accounts of abduction. Furthermore, it seeks to add to the discourse surrounding race and the conception of the extraterrestrial.