rasx() Screenshots: Shots out at Sci-Fi Slavery
In the world of film visual effects professionals, this is the shot from the “famous” birth scene in Alfonso Cuarón, his excellent sci-fi film, Children of Men. Just corner Alex Lindsay in a pub in Zimbabwe and he will go on and on about the technical details of this scene. Here in the rasx() context this composition with the lovely Clare-Hope Ashitey is almost the exact prone position taken by LisaGay Hamilton as Younger Sethe in Beloved. Slavery enough for you? In both cases, the message behind these movie births is a Darwinian threat that is hard for white supremacists in denial to take: Black women have the most dominant genes.
Let me say it again in a brand new paragraph to threaten more “employment opportunities” for myself: Black women have the most dominant genes. This science sounds strange to you? Well, that’s why these messages fare better in science fiction stories—because truth is stranger than the American pulp fiction swaddling imperial children over 40. This scene should represent the core of what dudes of color like DJ Spooky call Afrofuturism—since this dude is probably in Antarctica right now I fear it does not.
Since I failed to discover P.D. James when I was young enough to be interested in such things, I am unable to verify that the character, Kee, played by Clare-Hope Ashitey was deliberately specified as an African woman. Whoever made this casting choice made the wrong choice for white supremacy but the right choice for the Universe. Because, folks, it’s ultimately the Universe that selected the “contingency” we call Planet Earth—and, in turn, this planet selects for Black women—and so it should be no great mystery why the study of science is not celebrated in the United States. Science fact is so disrespected that you have to put it in science fiction.
So, here in the rasx() context, when human life “finds a way,” in the face of the greatest empire television has ever seen, it will take the middle-Earth passage through our African women. Any new science fiction stories coming out to a theatre near you that “naturally” minimize the African presence in the fictional future are nothing but poison lies of barbarian seduction.
You think I can get “a job” in Hollywood now?
Comments
Steven, 2008-01-25 15:43:08
The thought that went through my head during this movie was that Kee still had to be saved by a white man. She was essentially an object who was being used by a variety of forces... or, she was an object who was being helped by a variety of forces. She does have some agency, in the sense that she's asked what she wants to do... and, of course, she's carrying the hope of all humanity with her ability to bear children... but she's always being shepherded along by others. I wanted her to be shown as more the agent of her own destiny. Then, I would have been really impressed.
rasx(), 2008-01-25 21:01:22
Yes, Steven, but I have yet to explain publicly to my satisfaction the incredibly unfair sense of jealousy you would engender when you promote such self-contained, highly functional African people in the "white man's" media empires. You must understand that these "open" and "universal" media markets are essentially designed to babysit immature white people (of all ages) and maintain their sense of worth. When you threaten the relevancy of whites through effective and excellent storytelling, you threaten the very foundations of too many white institutions that depend on Negro dependents posing as legitimate community authorities.
When you as an African successfully, objectively and even lovingly tell self-described white people they are not needed, this behavior is too often unfairly interpreted as a hate crime. This "strange" reaction to Black independence even in fiction is not strange at all... this is of a direct confrontation with oppression...
Steven, 2008-01-28 15:50:44
Well put, rasx(). It's amazing how fragile the egos of the ruling class are... Hollywood and nearly all our storytellers exist to fawn over them and reflect back to them their indescribable beauty, power, and generosity...
On the subject of sci-fi, though, let me ask a slightly tangential question: have you read much Octavia Butler or Samuel R. Delany? Two very different folks writing sci-fi from the African-American experience... Butler's Wild Seed is especially challenging and rewarding, in my opinion...
rasx(), 2008-01-28 19:22:02
Samuel R. Delany is not on my reading list (yet) but Octavia Butler blows me away...
Michael Fisher, 2008-01-29 03:47:38
"When you as an African successfully, objectively and even lovingly tell self-described white people they are not needed, this behavior is too often unfairly interpreted as a hate crime."
Yeah well, that ain't constricted just to white folks. Certain Negroes go ape-shyt over stuff like that, too. Basically that was the reason for my ex-blog contributors to leave in a huff. That shyt started when I said that we don't need no "white anti-racist allies" to take care of our own fight.
cybernigga, 2008-04-07 23:54:26
I wonder if it's the racist in people that is offened or if it's just thier inability and fear to look at a problem they dont know how to deal with. On both MMORPG forums and Sci-fi Forums I have repeatedly tried to open up dialogues about creating more prominence for minorites in these mediums and each time I am either banned or called a racist. If anyone here is a gamer I'm collecting stories of black experiences in MMO's for my website at http://aniggaincyberspace.com/2008/04/07/collecting-world-of-warcraft-and-second-life-stories/