The Black Experience of Time Traveling

Maya Phillip discusses in her article, "See You Yesterday” and the Perils— and Promise—of Time-Travelling While Black" about the new film 'See You Yesterday' by Spike Lee and how it's the first film to truly comment on the black experience of time traveling. The new movie "See You Yesterday" explores the concept of time travel through the lens of black protagonists, and shows how the experience of time travel isn't necessarily an exciting adventure for black people. Instead, it can be a realization that there isn't a time period in the United States that Black people experienced equality or justice.

The film, directed by Stefon Bristol and produced by Spike Lee, follows two black high school students, C.J. and Sebastian, who have invented a time machine. They use their invention to prevent the police shooting of C.J.'s brother, but their attempts to change the past have unforeseen and disastrous consequences. The movie touches on issues of police brutality, racial profiling, and systemic racism. Maya Phillips points out that this film is different than other time traveling movies or television shows. Many time traveling films deal with characters, mainly white or male, that are traveling to change their own destiny or wanting to experience the life of a famous character in history. Due to these characters being white they don't deal with the impact of racism while traveling to the past or future, which the main point that Spike Lee is trying to critique in 'See You Yesterday.' In his film, the characters C.J and Sebastian are only trying to use time traveling to allow them to go to college and get out of their current living situations. It's an authentic portrayal of how Black people see time traveling, which is something I had never considered when watching time traveling based movies.

One of the key themes of the film is the idea that time travel is not an escape for black people, but a way to confront the harsh realities of their past and present. As C.J. and Sebastian travel back in time, they encounter the same racial prejudices and injustices that they face in their own time. They are forced to confront the fact that there is no time period in American history where black people were treated fairly or justly. I have yet to see this film, but it makes me wonder how far would a black person have to go in time to change the ways they have been treated in history? It's probably naive to think that there is a specific time or date where one could time travel back to change the way we have treated people based on their race, culture and identity.

What are your guys thoughts? How could time travel be used to solve or deconstruct the racism that is embedded within the United States history and worlds history?