Black Starships

     The article by Mark Bould, titled; “The Ships Landed Long Ago: Afrofuturism and Black SF”, was an insightful piece that delves into discussions surrounding white authors and their aversion to truly creating a utopia that removes racism from the created societies. The emphasis on the imaginative minds of artists dealing with sf, are also mentioned and are the focus when detailing how they have succeed in creating those realities themselves to a certain extent. Examples that were used were characters from comic books, such as Luke Cage, his story is still heavily enveloped in stereotypical tropes and modes of storytelling, but is still a black hero who saves the day despite meaning into the black masculinity that can often times be harmful in real life. Artists such a as Sun Ra were also mentioned along with many who created at the same time as him. The critique of that type of work was that it failed to actually address structural problems that black Americans face.

    Escapism is a natural conclusion when met with very traumatic experiences. I’d argue that all black Americans are in a constant state of trauma, due to a system that continually lets them down. Black Science Fiction is a great way to do this. It allows for alternative realities to be created for black people. However, when written by white hands, racism always seems to creep into it one way or another. The inability to remove the effects of white supremacy from science fiction in general is very difficult as many stories take advantage of the systems of operation that have come out as a result of it. Colonization, subjugation, illegal mutation and experimentation; all of which sound incredibly alien, have already occurred to black people. This is also a point that has been made in the text. 

    Black SF cannot truly transcend these patterns unless they are fully dedicated to deconstructing all systems that have suppressed them. This includes, religion, colorism, misogynoir, transphobia, capitalism, etc… All of these structures work in continuing the oppression of black people. Science Fiction itself, could be a great way for black people to imagine better futures, however, the best future cannot be imagined until those aforementioned things are properly addressed in the world building and story telling aspects of these creative endeavors.