Preferring Things In Black and White

This article summarizes a story that’s about usual time travel shenanigans, with the same inconsistencies and silliness as other media has when it comes to something as story-breaking as time travel, however, this story, in particular, follows Black characters whose Blackness is undeniably at the forefront every movement they make in society… even traveling through time. This is certainly a change of pace since it’s not common for characters who are nonwhite to have the chance to travel through time, much less have their identity be acknowledged as something that will affect how that happens. This story made me think about something tangentially related to Black Panther– the time-traveling shenanigans in Avengers: Infinity War and Endgame. Specifically, how there’s one Black character (Rhodey) that does get to time travel! But, of course, his race actually has nothing to do with the time and/or place he does travel to since they’re going to space… but imagine if it had been him who went back to the 1950s. And speaking of which, a more fascinating point about time travel and race is the way that Captain America had his character arc conclude. Steve Rogers, having grown up in World War 2 American society, and then in modern times making a few Black friends, decided to travel back to segregation-era America just for… a relationship. Nothing to say about the state of society otherwise, he was perfectly comfortable with the state of race relations in his time so long as he got to get the girl which I think perfectly encapsulates the way that the mainstream views… a lot of media, but also time travel. (Week 14)