The Privilege of Acknowledgement

Marks makes really excellent points about how something’s “authenticity” is extremely dependent upon who has the authority to determine such a thing. And I think that Afrofuturism truly does have its work cut out for it when it comes to modern Western society; while other genres of media can be more (emphasis on more, not entirely) easily categorized and validated, there are just so many aspects of Afrofuturism that are debated on to this day. For example, something such as “steampunk” can be easily identified in modern times; it has identifiable traits such as a Victorian setting, or steam-powered technology, and those things aren’t really deniable. Either something is in a Victorian setting, or it isn’t. However, with something like Afrofuturism, it can be harder to define what exactly it all encompasses. Such as, it encompasses the “afro-” part of it, as in Blackness… but what is Blackness? That question has been the center of so much sociological, philosophical, and biological debate and still doesn’t have like… a single definitive answer. And the second part– futurism– seems easier to define, but all the same, is futurism everything that happens after us? Or is it also our past? Our present was also someone’s future at some point. Similarly, if it means futurism in terms of biology or technology or any combination of the two is also something that there is no one answer for. Between those two things, it’s clear that while Afrofuturism has a sort of vibe and a pretty decent understanding of what it is, it’s not objective. And not being objective means that in the Western world at least, it’s a lot harder to categorize and validate as worthwhile. (Week 5)