Reimagining "See You Yesterday" -- What if Black Time Travelers Were Unapologetic About the Butterfly Affect?

See You Yesterday is a 2019 afrofuturist film directed by Spike Lee that follows two teenage scientists – C.J. Walker and Sebastian Thomas. C.J. and Sebastian have successfully created a time machine. They hope to use their discovery to earn scholarships and ultimately leave their town behind them. However, their plans abruptly come to a halt. Two police officers mistake C.J.’s older brother, Calvin, for another young man involved in an armed robbery. While Calvin is trying to pull his wallet out of his pocket, he is shot dead. After the murder, C.J. decides to use their discovery to attempt to save her brother from his untimely death. 

This was my first time watching See You Yesterday. Overall, I enjoyed the premise: two brilliant Black teens who discover time travel in time for a science fair. However, the film was highly charged, emotional, and at times difficult to watch. I also felt that the ending left me unsatisfied and anxious. In this sense, I agreed with Sherronda J. Brown in her article “I Want Black Time Travelers to be a Threat to the Status Quo.” Watching C.J.’s brother die again and again (or Sebastian, in the one timeline she saves her brother) was gut-wrenching, and it felt a little like watching a bird hit its reflection in the window: we know nothing can come of it, but it keeps trying. I kept hoping there would be some radical change that would save her brother or Sebastian (perhaps a distraction for the police?), and I resonated with Brown when she argued: “I say, let Black time travelers burn all the ships, the ones headed for Africa and the ones headed for the New World.” 

Brown’s quote reminded me of the scene from American Gods in Dr. Cathy Thomas’s guest lecture where Anansi (the spider god associated with trickery) time travels to the slave ship and instigates a revolt. I was surprised to learn that the character was written off the show in part to this speech in season one – given the power, wouldn’t that seem like the most likely outcome? With a knowledge of a horrific future, why not burn down the past that created it? I agree with Brown when she argues “even if it means they might no longer exist or create a time paradox in the process. Fuck this timeline anyway. I want Black time travelers to fuck up white history for the sake of Black futures.”