Not that he was not human, but he dwelt in a world so far from hers, so infinitely far, that he seldom even entered her thought " (Du Bois 4). For Julia, Jim is an unknowable stranger who is "alien in blood and culture " (Du Bois 8). The expression "infinitely far " indicates that there is no intersection between his life and hers, which implies racial segregation. Furthermore, Du Bois suggests that Jim's unknowability to Julia is just due to his race, a race that is different than her own. The idea that people of another race are unknowable is predictive of a racist mentality. It is clear from this statement that racism arbitrarily categorizes black and white people into two separated worlds, and that racist thoughts discourage Julia from recognizing Jim as a legitimate rescuer. Although she accepts his help in saving her life, Julia does not emotionally credits Jim as her hero. By describing the implicit racial segregation between Jim and Julia, Du Bois brings attention to the lack of understanding and interactions caused by racist thoughts, and calls for fairer treatment of people irrespective of their race.
Similarly in Aye and Gomorrah, the Spacers are segregated from others due to their unique sexless and genderless identities. Such exclusion is demonstrated when they are repeatedly asked to leave in different situations. The Spacers are called "strangers " by a gay man, who comments that they have nothing for him since they are not men (Delany 124). They are later asked to leave by a bisexual female prostitute who expresses a similar statement of their uselessness. The two occasions resemble each other in that both the gay man and the bisexual woman arbitrarily label other people as insiders or outsiders according to their sex and sexual orientations. Moreover, as Delany suggests, such attitudes and practices of exclusion are pervasive in the setting, which force Spacers to constantly "come down " and "go up " (124), as they are not accepted anywhere.
