Afrofuturism: Past, Present, & Future
Afrofuturism, a transdisciplinary sub-genre of Science Fiction, represents the changing relations of science as it pertained to African American history and future history. Due to sociological factors and norms, a trend of under-representation has been persistent within the areas of Science Fiction, media, and popular culture. Focusing on short stories, novels, contemporary comics, and various films with an Afrofuturistic core, this blog aims to show how African American characters are viewed and represented across media. Each of the primary and scholarly sources, provides an examination of stereotypes and challenges that are factors as to why African Americans are portrayed in a context that is mainly negative and deleterious to the fictional past and future histories, in contrast to how Euro-American characters are portrayed. Within the examination, there will be evidence proving that Euro-American people are privileged over African Americans within Science Fiction. Although the reasons for this privileging varies, the oppression that characterizes contemporary society is most forcefully reduced when the subordinated African Americans don’t accept their social status as inevitable, thus leading to the creation of what is known as Afrofuturism. Starting with the Golden Age of Science Fiction to current, this blog aims to create an Afrofuturistic timeline starting with the early 1930s works of Science Fiction and beyond.
I’m often asked is
"How on earth did you get interested in all this?” For as long as I can remember, I've loved to research subjects that are connected to my passion, views, and hobbies. Creating this blog: Afrofuturism: Past, Present, & Future has allowed me to share my passions and wonderings with my loyal readers & those who have stumbled here by mistake. Explore my site, and enjoy.
November 8, 2019
There is a clear struggle for African American representation in film, but it goes deeper than simply hiring and casting these actors in the roles. There must be a change in regards to how these actors are cast into stereotypical roles that are deleterious to the Afric...
September 27, 2019
The story of the Avatar film takes place in the year of 2154 on a jungle-like planet named Pandora. Humanity has sought to colonize the planet due to Earth having been depleted of its natural resources. In the film the alien species are called the Na’vi and are nine-fo...
March 1, 2019
Within the Star Wars universe ranging from 1977 to present, there seems to be the idea that the planets that are primarily inhabited by a single race are Utopias. Each planet that was inhabited by several species and races, were the ones that most of the fighting occur...
January 15, 2019
The film The Matrix directed by the Wachowski siblings in 1999, shows a post-apocalyptic world. This fictional human civilization is being destroyed by a computer system known as the Matrix. This destruction is done in a smoke and mirrors type of way, being that the hu...
November 15, 2018
Many Science Fiction films can now be linked to Afrofuturism in one way or another. Having an African American character that is represented within the film can be interpreted in many ways. In the past, African American actors were used as parts of the scenery, stereo...
November 1, 2018
Later in 1967, through another Science Fiction text, the Euro-American author Harlan Ellison approaches the ideas of gender and race in his short story, “I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream”. One important change is there is are characters of different races within this...
September 15, 2018
Pilgrims through Space and Time: Trends and Patterns in Scientific and Utopian Fiction, written by James Bailey in 1947, is noted as one of the first to study Science Fiction academically. He stated that, "a piece of scientific fiction is a narrative of an imaginary i...
July 19, 2018
Upon arrival to Beijing China, there was a tension in the air. It wasn’t the humid weather or the rain. It was that feeling you get, when you realize that you’ve locked your keys in your car, and you just heard the door click shut. The feeling of, “oh crap”. All you ca...
May 18, 2018
In the novel, The Invisible Man, written by Ralph Ellison in 1952, the main character is invisible to a society that refuses to see him. Much like the Shambleau alien in Moore’s story, this fictional society does not like the idea of the “Invisible Man” inhabiting w...
May 8, 2018
I was floored when I received the email that my article has been published in a peer reviewed scholarly journal. This was an article I wrote, after speaking at the International Journal of Arts & Sciences (IJAS) Conference, in Freiburg Germany.
This is an abr...
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