Environmental influence

Throughout Kindred we continually see this theme of change brought on through the gain of power. Mainly through Rufus. When we first come into contact with Rufus he seems to be an innocent child that, while somewhat aware of his white status, is still good friends with the freed blacks and slaves he comes into contact with. When he was young his conscience led him to believe that he should treat these black people with some respect. Although this soon changes, as we jump through time Rufus becomes increasingly aware of his status, and this respect diminishes. Rufus's mind set slowly changes as he slowly adopts the belief that he is meant to be treated in such a manner by black people much like his father demanded. His status is natural to him and the only way, their becomes this no other alternative mindset going on in Rufus's mind. I see this as a direct result of the amount of power Rufus is granted, as he ages he is given more rights to control Dana and other slaves as he begins to fill into the role of his father as the next slave master despite Dana's efforts to stop the transformation.
I think Kindred may be presenting this idea that most humans, even those who seem immune to such behaviors at first, like Rufus in his early days, can easily be corrupted by circumstance. While many of us believe strongly that we would abhorred the violent acts of the slave masters and reject the cultural norms if we too found ourselves in the situation Rufus is in, we can never prove that we actually would. Maybe it is human nature to become accepting of such practices after coming up in an environment that so easily accepts this social hierarchy. I believe that Butler is attempting to look at this argument from a new angle rather than simply saying, "oh I would never be OK with slavery!" and ending the discussion there, it seems to be more of a starter for thought about an a discussion about how susceptible we are to our environment and how little control we may actually have over our own conscience since so much of it is enforced by our peers and a general cultural identity that often boxes in our way of thinking.