what can be learned from afrofuturist texts?

 Week 6 response:

Mark Bould investigates the background and cultural importance of Afrofuturism in the context of black science fiction in his article "The Ships Landed Long Ago: Afrofuturism and Black SF." The article starts off by pointing out how science fiction has often excluded people of color, which is why afrofuturism as a genre is so important because it can be understood as a means for black people to reclaim their past, present, and future through imaginative re-envisioning. The main purpose of this article is to highlight how black-written science fiction texts have generally been neglected, and even more so how science fiction has been designed to marginalize black voices and black experience while favoring white American pulp-and-paperback and European literary traditions. 

A quote from the article that stood out to me reads: "it is the contention of this issue that sf and sf studies have much to learn from the experience of technoculture that Afrofuturist texts register across a wide range of media; and that sf studies, if it is to be at all radical, must use its position of relative privilege to provide a home for excluded voices without forcing assimilation upon them." This quote is significant because it points out how science fiction has been historically racist and discriminatory as a genre. At the same time, it is also making the more pressing point that it is necessary for science fiction studies to use its privilege to put a stronger emphasis on afrofuturist texts and black science fiction texts in general, without forcing these texts to take on white american or european literary traditions or forcing white-written science fiction texts to try and take on the role of anti-racist texts without real experience or context.

The episode "Survival" from the show UFO is brought up in the article as attempting to make a progressive statement about racial prejudice as saying it has been "burned out," which actually ends up coming across as naive and racist in of itself as it gives no historical context for the statement being made. This is a great example of white science fiction authors trying to assimilate with what should be reserved for black science fiction authors.

Bould's article, which emphasizes the ways in which science fiction related artistic forms may empower and inspire black communities, provides a compelling summary of the background and cultural significance of Afrofuturism and black science fiction.