Afrofuturism mixes sci-fi and social justice. Here’s how it works.
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0:02When people envision a future in art
most often it's seen through a white lens.
0:06Only 8% of the 100 top grossing sci-fi and fantasy films featured a protagonist of color.
0:12Half the time the protagonist was Will Smith.
0:15The future looks different, if you look at it through the lens of black experiences.
0:16But we’re not all white or Will Smith.
0:18The future looks different, if you look at it through the lens of black experiences.
0:22That’s why we have this thing called Afrofuturism.
0:26The term was coined by culture critic Mark Dery in 1994 to point out the lack of black writers and black stories in science fiction.
0:33But this kind of art existed long before the term Afrofuturism did. Just look at music.
0:39Jazz musician Sun-Ra is probably one of the most recognizable Afrofuturists.
0:44He lays out an afrofuturistic design is his 1973 album Space is the Place, which you’re listening to now, and also became a film.
0:51The key is that his future was afrocentric – linking his futuristic self, to ancient forbears in Egypt.
1:01These ideas were more politically direct, and a lot more funky, in George Clinton’s Parliament during 1975.
1:08In “Mothership Connection” he connects the struggle of civil rights and “We Shall Overcome” to a positive future with evidence the struggle will work:
1:14"You have overcome. For I am here"
1:18He not only references an old song from the underground railroad to escape slavery:
1:22"Swing down, sweet chariot.
Stop and let me ride."
1:27But he flipped a desperate history into positive futuristic ride on his spaceship as evidence the struggle is over and we’ve won
1:32"Swing down, sweet chariot. Stop and let me ride"
1:37— so of course everybody wants to get on.
1:39[Dr. Dre's "Let Me Ride" playing]
1:40And people did get on,
1:42[Dr. Dre's "Let Me Ride" continues]
1:45or at least some 90s hip hop heavyweights did.
1:48But Afrofuturism also critiques the way the future looks today like André 3000 did on his ATLiens verse.
1:54“Because the future of the world depends on"
1:56"If or if not the child we raise gon' have that n***a syndrome."
1:58"Or will it know to beat the odds regardless of the skin tone.”
2:02He wants his unborn kid to get the future they want, not the one society created for them because of race.
2:08And that’s why he takes pride in the difference.
2:10They alienate us cause we different keep your hands to the sky.
2:12Like Sounds of Blackness when I practice what I preach ain't no lie.
2:15And empowers black people to fight to get what’s ours.
2:18"I'll be the baker and the maker of the piece of my pie."
2:20'Cause that’s the thing about afrofuturism — it’s rooted in black people a better future for ourselves on our terms, like Janelle Monáe does in "Q.U.E.E.N."
2:29"Even if it makes others uncomfortable"
2:33"I will love who I am."
2:35This is the common thread of Afrofuturism. To overcome the current ways society remains unequal
2:41There needs to be futures where those problems are solved.
2:45Afrofuturism shows us what that looks like.
2:47It looks like hope.
2:48[Crowd shouting "We goin' be alright."
2:53"Will you be electric sheep? Electric ladies, will you sleep? Or will you preach?"
