The ability to dream – to envision a world beyond the parameters of what is considered to realistic or pragmatic – is one of the strongest tools available to Black people in the struggle for liberation.
Walidah Imarisha said "...science fiction is the only genre that not only allows you to disregard everything that we're taught is realistic and practical, but actually demands that you do. So it allows us to move beyond the bounds of what is realistic and what is real, into the realm of the imagination that is actually something that organizers do every single day. All organizing is science fiction. When organizers imagine a world without poverty, without war, without borders or prisons—that's science fiction. They're moving beyond the boundaries of what is possible or realistic, into the realm of what we are told is impossible. Being able to collectively dream those new worlds means that we can begin to create those new worlds here." (1)
To be Black while existing in an imperialist white-supremacist-capitalist-cisheteropatriarchal (2) society means fending off daily attacks intended to destroy the mind and body. Said attacks manifest themselves in the form of violence at the hands of law enforcement and/or other agents of the state, environmental racism, political disenfranchisement, among others. The level of ethno-stress (3) experienced when battling these forces creates a situation where one is in a constant state of 'fight or flight.' Eventually, one becomes so weary and beaten down, their spirit and imagination erodes to the point where they no longer have the capacity to dream of anything outside of the status quo.
The ability to dream – to envision a world beyond the parameters of what is considered to realistic or pragmatic – is one of the strongest tools available to Black people in the struggle for liberation. With that being said, the genre of science fiction assists fortifying and protecting one's ability to dream. Science fiction provides necessary escapes from daunting realities while simultaneously offering a blueprint to reimagine and construct a world where people will be able to embrace all aspects of their identity.
These works have the potential to offer political education to a wider audience. For those who are unable to access higher education, science fiction novels, comic books, film, and others media offer entry points to deeper conversations of oppression, community, resistance, and anti-colonialism.
In science fiction, we do not have to stay contained within what is possible. We can start with the question "What do we want?" rather than the question "What is realistic?" The journey in which I am about to embark is a call to buttress our imagination – if not for ourselves, for our children. I utilize authors and works such as Octavia Butler, X-Men, and The Matrix to reimagine political education, grassroots community organizing and the politics behind liberation for all Black people.
...
Notes
(1) Walidah Imarisha is a writer, organizer, educator, and spoken word artist. She is a public scholar with the Oregon Humanities' Conversation Project, and toured Oregon for six years facilitating programs on topics such as Oregon Black history, alternatives to incarceration and the history of hip hop. She is one of the co-editors of Octavia's Brood: Science Fiction Stories From Social Justice Movements. She is known for coining the term "visionary fiction" and clearly accentuating the connection between organizing and science fiction.
(2)"white supremacist capitalist patriarchy" is a term coined by bell hooks, professor, social critic, and author of seminal works such as Ain't I A Woman. (1981) Her works reinforce the idea that racism, sexism, patriarchy, and other oppressive forces cannot be dealt with in isolation because their interconnectedness shapes the violence experienced by marginalized groups in society i.e. poor, queer, Black women. In her words, she uses the term "…because I wanted to have some language that would actually remind us continually of the interlocking systems of domination that define our reality and not to just have one thing be like gender is the important issue, race is the important issue. For me, the use of that particular jargonistic phrase was a way, a sort of short cut way of saying all of these things actually are functioning simultaneously at all times in our lives and that if I really want to understand what is happening to me, right now at this moment in my life, as a Black female of a certain age group, I won't be able to understand it if I'm only looking through the lens of race. I won't be able to understand it if I'm only looking through the lens of gender. I won't be able to understand it if I'm only looking at how white people see me… I might say to students that you know that when we use the term 'white supremacy' it doesn't just evoke white people, it evokes a political world that we can all frame ourselves in relationship to." I added the prefix cishetero- to patriarchy to highlight the rigid gender binary system that presumes cisgenderism and heterosexuality are social defaults.
(3) The term 'ethnostress' first appeared in Diane Hill's article Ethnostress: The Disruption of the Aboriginal Spirit. (1992) Hill, a member of the Mohawk Nation Bear clan from the Six Nations in Ontario has been a consultant on various Aboriginal education initiatives both nationally & internationally. Her arguments are rooted within indigenous and native communities but are applicable to Black, Puerto Rican, Chicano, and North American Indian communities as well. Ethnostress "was to become the label for confusion and disruption that people were experiencing inside of their world." The confusion these groups experience was attributed to "the poor economic situation and the reality of the political battles being waged." She sought to determine how such stressors impacted the individual's identity and the community's identity. In response to a series of racially charged hate crimes the in the Fall of 2014, I referenced the term in an editorial in the Massachusetts Daily Collegian. "We refer to such a phenomenon as ethno-stress – mental and social pressures students of color face while in predominately white spaces. Being one of eight Black students in lectures halls of 300 students is a direct example… When situations such as these occur (slurs written on the wall, nooses hung on trees, etc.) it prevents students from focusing on academics as they should as paying students of the University. The self-awareness and hypervigilance is increased because it is a natural defense mechanism. However, when students of color act on the "fight or flight" response, we are stigmatized whenever we do either."
Share This Article
