An Afrofuturist Moment?
What is Afrofuturism? Obviously, I define Afrofuturism as the intersection between speculation and liberation inspired by the concerns of Afrodiasporic peoples. It tends to mix science and technology questions, and positions knowledge around a more liberatory framework. At the core of Afrofuturism is an emphasis on trying to create a more equitable system with a goal of collective care at the center of the system. In some ways, Afrofuturism is heavily influenced or defined in a kind of oppositional manner because the current system often doesn't have at its core care for everyone. A lot of times, Afrofuturism is really asking us to think about how the system can be made safe for everyone, and I think that's part of the reason why it's so appealing to so many people. It is easy in this context to see how contemporary activism linked to Black Lives Matter can be seen as Afrofuturist, but it also links to the debate over “cancel” culture.
While I think many people can understand public protest, the idea that informal cultural discourse can change is more complex. To me, the question we have to consider in the case of “cancel culture” is what is being canceled. The power dynamics in the debates are easy to overlook. It has been acceptable for Eurocentric framing of culture to define all non-white cultures and perspectives as secondary if they are considered at all. Calling attention to how this unspoken privilege centers on assumptions that obscure histories of race and gender that center the Eurocentric perspective are hard to see and understand.
As Afrofuturism seeks to undermine hierarchy and seek greater security for all, the current system does not provide equity. The assertion is resisted when it is connected race and gender. The core of the resistance exist because the system of equality is built on race and gender, those categories are the one that have been a foundation for colonial power. Thus, the bodies that manifest different through race or gender are, be default, the space of greatest debate around equity. While I think Afrofuturism theorizes a pathforward, it is not a path easily understood for everyone. The very act of seeing the system must be linked to an understanding of choices born of the assumptions of power and privilege learned over generations. This has been the challenge of the postwar era and arguably, we have been involved in a step-by-step skills building exercise for decades. It may be that the argument we are having now signal that the success of those earlier debates. We are moving slowly toward a more inclusive union and that success is prompting those resistance to change to abandon the system of norms that facilitate evolution we have undergone.
The trouble we see may signal a bright new dawn.
