The story "Out of All Them Bright Stars" makes the very obvious claim about racism. In the story, an alien walks into a diner and wants a salad, the owner of the diner then kicks him out after refusing to serve him. The alien is judged solely on the color of his blue skin and his misshaped hands. The server named Sally is the only person who does not judge the alien and is willing to serve him the salad that he wants.
Although the alien did nothing to be treated this way, he remained silent while he is ostracized by the owner of the diner. This goes to show that the humans, especially Charlie, didn't treat John poorly because he is an alien, but because they know that he can do nothing about it. If John were to react violently, then the aliens would be branded as vicious and they would be treated even more poorly than they already are. John cannot speak for himself, so he was expecting the kind humans, like sally to be his voice, but even those kind humans are afraid.
Sally does not stand up for John, even though she knows he is being treated unfairly, because she wants to keep her job. Sally values her job more than helping an oppressed minority get the rights that they deserve. Sally also does not want to be viewed poorly by her fellow humans, because if she helped John, then she would be on "their" side and the rest of the humans on Earth would be against her. Overall, the story focuses on how minorities are mistreated due to their physical appearances and how no one wants to give them a chance, or stand up for them. So what choice do they have?
