I worked with Jae Madsen closely for over thirty years. She chose to keep our relationship on a professional level, and I respected her choice. I cannot claim to know how Jae thought or where her memories would lead her. These are part of Louis's fabrications in his version of historical fiction.

Whether Jae had these thoughts in real life, however, still does not discount what Louis brought to the forefront as an archetype of many who came into the habitats in the decades preceding the Catastrophe.

"We brought ourselves down" is a phrase I've uttered repeatedly. We brought everything with us, our pain and trauma in whatever form or guise it appeared. We brought down the stories and opinions we and those who came before us had been fed from birth. We brought down the unconscious rules we had absorbed, based not on facts but on the fears we had been conditioned to believe were real. Some of the stories we brought down weren't truthful; they were lies, deliberate and malicious. They played on our fears, the ones we had been fed as children, and we absorbed more each day. From media to religion to the platitudes and language used, those stories hammered at the idea that despite the words enshrined in many a country's laws, nobody considered every other human being equal to themselves. Each surface culture deemed at least one other culture as less than. It might be because of their skin color, education, faith or spirituality. It might be for historical purposes, justifiable or not. It might even be how those of a particular country or a group saw themselves and embraced societal or personal identities.

We brought a lot down; every person recruited into every habitat brought their learned thought processes and behaviors down with them, composed of every single experience they had been exposed to through their lifetimes, including trauma carried by generations of ancestors, passed along to their descendants. It included everything: their emotional and mental state, their expectations, their memories and overlying all of that, their perspective, seeing every part of their past through a lens usually shaped for them.

No matter how enlightened or focused on human values someone considered themselves to be, each of us had a filter through which we experienced everything. It was a part of us; how could it not be? We were raised with trauma, experienced or learned through systemic biases all around us. The Charter contradicted many of these biases, creating difficulties initially. How much leeway were we willing to allow those who could not shake the lessons of their formative years, no matter how hard they tried?

Yes, we brought everything down with us, but not as much as if we had simply scooped people up without a recruitment process. If we had restricted admittance to the habitats only to those who exhibited no systemic biases, they would have sat empty, and our mission would never have succeeded. Over time, we worked to bring our society into accordance with the Charter, formulating a way forward to weed out those biases and the stigmas attached. One of the first areas identified had to do with self-perception. To enable each person to see themselves as one individual amongst many without feeling a need to change in a way incompatible with who they truly were.

Some of those first attempts at removing stigmas were in the areas of clothing measurements and identifying skin and hair types by characteristics other than what could be considered racial derivatives. (1)

Cultures all over the world maintain different standards of beauty, and there is no one ultimate agreement on what makes someone physically beautiful. However, most of the human race had no issue dictating what "correct" physical characteristics should be and causing those who could not adhere to these characteristics to feel bad about themselves.

Consider our physical body size as an example. Each of us will exhibit numerous shapes and sizes throughout our lifetimes. Most of us (except myself and Kevin) can only maintain a specific weight and shape for a few years without sometimes drastic interventions. Learning to love ourselves, regardless of age, weight or shape, is an essential first step. If we can stop judging ourselves for perceived imperfections, it might be easier to stop judging others for the same issues.

Moving our measurements outside our consciousness helped remove the stigma of being lighter or heavier than a ratio based on averages, regardless of any one individual's actual reality. After all, neither our weight nor our height should act as an indicator of who we actually are. The measuring system used in the habitats and beyond is an example. It was my first experience of what the Foundation was implementing to help remove biases. While Louis spoke of my getting measured as an ordinary process, it was anything but for me that first time.

What could have been a demeaning moment wasn't, which was the most extraordinary thing about it. The measuring device used by the fitter was connected to systems. The measurements went so much further than what I had ever considered as standard, those of my waist, hip and chest. They measured the length and breadth of my neck, how wide my shoulders were, and the length not only of my arm as one but from the different junctures of joints and it went on from there, basically anything affecting the fit of a garment.

A screen initially showed a body shape outlined in gray. As I was measured, a brighter color replaced the gray without indicating the actual measurement. Sample sizes were determined and coded. I didn't have to worry about what the codes meant; I just scanned the code of an outfit I was interested in on my class="glossary-link" target=”glossary" title=", glossary, opens in another tab"mobile, and the sample size lit up in front of me. There were no recriminations on my part of being too fat, too skinny, too many curves, not enough. I just had to look for clothes and see if there were samples. If there weren't, I could ask if one could be made, and if possible, most places were happy to accommodate a request.

Removing biases began in these small ways, working to ensure clothing sizes were neither competitive nor shaming but simply an indication of where you were in a moment and subject to change for everyone. Everyone had a code, and no one code was better than another. They simply identified clothing to fit you. Body and hair care products worked the same way: typing your skin and hair characteristics and breaking them down into neutral terms describing the physical attributes rather than the genetics that brought them to the forefront. Those types are then identified on body products for your skin or hair type.

Did it happen quickly? No, almost twenty generations passed before perceived biases of skin, body and hair types became unknown. But those biases took a long time to infest their way into the very underpinnings of society, and we knew it would take time to weed them out.

As I said at the beginning, Jae and I weren't close enough for me to know what she thought. Something did change in her relationship with Gerold after we went shopping, but I don't know if her reasons correlate with this story. Before the circumstances surrounding my conversation with Gerold, she'd been quiet in our meetings with him, allowing Gerold to dominate discussions. After our shopping trip, she began to take charge when those situations arose. So, while I don't know the exact situation between Gerold and Jae, I do know this.

We worked hard to weed out biases related to power or position, and it took time. In the beginning, most of us in the habitats couldn't see these biases in ourselves. Unwittingly or not, we inflicted pain on others, excusing situations we experienced because of our inherent inability to recognize the biases we contained. After all, they had permeated every one of us throughout our lives.

Sometimes, we recognize bias only when we see another person take a stand. Only when we recognize bias for what it is can we begin the work to weed it out of ourselves. And then there could be other times requiring more of an intervention for everyone's sake. Help was always available for those who requested it.

We had to recognize the systemic biases we had absorbed throughout our lives and learn how to avoid passing them on to future generations. We did this mainly with the help and support of others in our communities. Those early residents worked hard to move us along the path toward true equality and equity.

Lastly, Chris was my clothing consultant and, more importantly, my friend during his lifetime. I am most remembered when I wear the garments and designs he and his team created. I still have his styles, designs and patterns I can recreate when necessary should the need arise again.