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This week in my Afrofuturism class, we read “Walking Awake,” which is a short Afrofuturistic story by N. K. Jemison. Throughout reading the novel, I was reminded of other Afrofuturistic works studied this quarter that embodied the themes the control and oppression. This is because Sadie, the main character, is oppressed by her “Master.” When her “Master” is taking Sadie to be “taken” Jemison writes, “Sadie swallowed, painfully aware of the passing seconds, of the danger of displeasing a Master, of Enri’s terrible unwavering stare.” This shows how oppressed Sadie really was and how fearful she is of the consequences of displeasing her oppressor, someone that is above her. This reminded me of other Afrofuturistic works read this quarter since. The recurring theme of oppression is transcribed throughout many of them. In Dawn, the earth comes to a death when a nuclear war breaks loose. The Oankali, an alien species, save some humans and take them back to their homeland. Throughout this process, they act as oppressors and, therefore, oppress these people that they saved. The Oankali manipulate the humans into thinking that they have a choice in their actions, but they don’t if they want to survive and return back to earth. This ties in with the theme of hierarchy because the Oankali are seen as superior to the humans since they are controlling and oppressing them. In fact, they had so much control over the humans that they practically knew every trait about the humans and their future actions, for the most part. This kind of oppression mirrors slavery, as the humans were not given a choice, and they were looked at as just people to interbreed with. For example, Lilith, the main character, was not given a choice to serve as a teacher or leader. It was just the task she was given if she wanted to be free and go back to earth. Lilith was also perceived as a pet, someone they can experiment with. When Nikanj went to visit her friends with Lilith, the narrator writes, “[Lilith] was nothing more than an unusual animal to them. Nikanj’s new pet.” Like Dawn, “Spider the Artist” and “Rustys” are two short stories which also have the theme of control embedded in them. In both stories, something other than a human is controlling the people. In “Spider the Artist,” “zombies” or technological spiders are controlling the people from the oil pipelines and murdering them. In “Rustys,” traffic robots are controlling and overseeing humans by crossing boundaries and spying on their private lives. To conclude, oppression and control are common themes found in Afrofuturistic works.

This week in my Afrofuturism class, we read the novel Parable of the Sower by Octavia Butler. Parable of the Sower is about a female who comes up with her own religion after her safety, and the safety of everyone else, becomes compromised. Throughout the novel, it is apparent that Lauren, the main character who is also a Black woman, tends to form relationships with other people who are part of a minority. I believe this is become she finds a sense of safety and security in those who she views as similar to herself and she takes them in as part of her own. This sort of attraction towards one’s own is contrasted with the xenophobia within the black community that is present in Black Panther and The Brother from Another Planet.

In Black Panther, Killmonger is seen as the antagonist, the villain, who at first seems like he is pro black-liberation, but later makes it clear that his goal is to dominate the world. He is the protagonist’s, T’challa’s, cousin. T’challa has to go head-to-head with his own blood near the end of the film, which shows aggression and violence toward one’s own. Therefore, the film makes it is apparent that there is an African-American divide. Killmonger’s seeming goals for black liberation also brought about the issue of black people helping others within their community.

In The Brother from Another Planet, there is also xenophobia within the black community. We see this when the brother goes to the bar, and a black man tells the bartender to throw away a cup because a foreign black man’s lips touched it. It’s clear that there is also a divide within the black community here as well. The writers of both of these works made this xenophobia a common theme to emphasize that black people, no matter their origin, need to come together instead of divide. In doing so, they will lift eachother up out of their struggles, hardships, and oppression.

There is also the theme of xenophobia in Dawn, although not within the black community, but the human race in general. In Dawn, the aliens are repulsive to humans. Octavia Butler, the author, does this on purpose, to show that there is a repulsive force between humans and others that they view as different. Butler writes, “But what she felt was like what she had heard others describe. A true xenophobia-and apparently she was not alone in it,” to emphasize that what Lilith, the main character, felt was xenophobia. To add on, in the novel, in order to save the human race, humans needed to intermix with what’s “different,” the Oankali. Doing so would allow both species to survive and mix with each other. This is how we should save the human race now. By trying to eliminate xenophobia, we take a step towards saving the human race.

This week in my Afrofuturism class, we were assigned to watch the movie District 9. District 9 is about high-tech aliens who land on earth to seek refuge from their home country. Upon watching the movie, I was immediately reminded of the novel Dawn, by Octavia Butler. In both Afrofuturistic works, aliens invade planet earth, but not to conquer or dominate it, but rather receive aid or give it out. Neither aliens mean any harm to the humans- they either helped them survive or asked for help.The aliens in District 9 were undoubtedly horrifying and ugly looking creatures, which resembles the revolting appearance of the Oankali, the aliens, in Dawn. In Dawn, the aliens were described as repulsive and frightening to the humans- so frightening, in fact, that some of the humans even wanted to murder the aliens. The creators of both works made the aliens look disturbing in order to mirror how human beings naturally condemn things or people whom they view as different. Butler even writes “Different is threatening to most species. Different is dangerous.” This emphasizes how differences in people or things frighten humans because they feel threatened. Both creators of the novel and movie also made the aliens horrifying in order to shed light on the issue of xenophobia. Xenophobia is the “intense or irrational fear of people from other countries.” In Dawn, during the first couple times the main character spends time with the aliens, Butler writes “But what she felt was like what she had heard others describe. A true xenophobia-and apparently she was not alone in it.” Lilith, the main character of Dawn, was no longer revolted by the Oankali only after she addressed her own xenophobia. This shows how xenophobia is a real problem and people need to be aware of it in order to fix it.

District 9 also reminded me of the treatment of the Native Americans during the colonization of America. When the aliens in the movie seeked refuge from their home land, they were given an area to stay at which was managed by Multi-National United. However, this management did not care about the well-being of the aliens, they were more concerned about the aliens’ highly advanced technology and how to mimic this technology. When America was being colonized, the Europeans befriended the Native Americans who later taught them everything they needed to know to survive. The Europeans ended up not only learning from them, but stealing from them as well, just like how the Multi-National United management wanted to learn from the aliens’ advanced technology.The Europeans never cared about the well-being of the Native Americans, resembling how the management never cared about the welfare of the aliens.

This week in my Afrofuturism class, we watched an excerpt of the movie District 9. District 9 is about high-tech aliens who land on earth to seek refuge from their home country. Upon watching the movie, I was immediately reminded of the novel Dawn, by Octavia Butler. In both Afrofuturistic works, aliens invade planet earth, but not to conquer or dominate it, but rather receive aid or give it out. Neither aliens mean any harm to the humans- they either helped them survive or asked for help.The aliens in District 9 were undoubtedly horrifying and ugly looking creatures, which resembles the revolting appearance of the Oankali, the aliens, in Dawn. In Dawn, the aliens were described as repulsive and frightening to the humans- so frightening, in fact, that some of the humans even wanted to murder the aliens. The creators of both works made the aliens look disturbing in order to mirror how human beings naturally condemn things or people whom they view as different. Butler even writes “Different is threatening to most species. Different is dangerous.” This emphasizes how differences in people or things frighten humans because they feel threatened. Both creators of the novel and movie also made the aliens horrifying in order to shed light on the issue of xenophobia. Xenophobia is the “intense or irrational fear of people from other countries.” In Dawn, during the first couple times the main character spends time with the aliens, Butler writes “But what she felt was like what she had heard others describe. A true xenophobia-and apparently she was not alone in it.” Lilith, the main character of Dawn, was no longer revolted by the Oankali only after she addressed her own xenophobia. This shows how xenophobia is a real problem and people need to be aware of it in order to fix it.

District 9 also reminded me of the treatment of the Native Americans during the colonization of America. When the aliens in the movie seeked refuge from their home land, they were given an area to stay at which was managed by Multi-National United. However, this management did not care about the well-being of the aliens, they were more concerned about the aliens’ highly advanced technology and how to mimic this technology. When America was being colonized, the Europeans befriended the Native Americans who later taught them everything they needed to know to survive. The Europeans ended up not only learning from them, but stealing from them as well, just like how the Multi-National United management wanted to learn from the aliens’ advanced technology.The Europeans never cared about the well-being of the Native Americans, resembling how the management never cared about the welfare of the aliens.

be-yoou-tiful

Afrofuturism is “a movement in literature, music, art, etc., featuring futuristic or science fiction themes which incorporate elements of black history and culture.” I’ve read and watched numerous amounts of Afrofuturistic works in my Afrofuturism class, and I’ve noticed that they all have several themes in common. Most Afrofuturistic works are set in a post-apocalyptic setting-either in a dystopian or utopian future. This week in class, we watched a film called The Girl With all the Gifts. After watching the film, I noticed that the film resembled many of the works read and watched this quarter in class. In the Girl With all the Gifts, the future is set in a dystopian society. A viral fungus has taken over most of humanity and caused the humans to become flesh-eating monsters. They are doomed to their own death unless they find a cure to this disease. This resembles Dawn because, in Dawn, a novel by Octavia Butler, Butler paints a picture of a dystopia. The earth, as we know it, came to a violent end when a nuclear war broke loose. Only a few survived, because of the help of powerful and extraterrestrial beings. Butler paints this picture to warn people that this is what humanity will come to if we continue with our ways and do not change. Human beings are flawed-and she makes that clear in her book when she emphasizes that we form hierarchies and are violent. Humans are predisposed to conflict, because whenever put together, conflict will arise. This is often referred to as the conflict theorem. On the other hand, in Sun Ra, another film watched this quarter, there is a painted picture of a utopia- a happy, non-hierarchical foreign place where African Americans can live equally and at peace. This story contrasts Dawn and The Girl With all the Gifts, as it shows what could be if human beings change their ways. On the other hand, Butler shows what could be if human beings do not change their ways. Either way, all works see a longing for difference, a longing for change in the human race. Sun Ra just uses an escapism approach while Dawn and The Girl With all the Gifts uses a confronting approach. Another work that uses confrontism is Pumzi, which highlights a dystopia. However, this story is not really about the issue of race, but about human beings’ relationship with nature. The story depicts a dystopia to show what the world could be like if we do not start taking care of the earth. To conclude, in all of these works, the earth, as we know it, is no more and each work has a different approach on what we can do to save the earth and humankind.

Afrofuturism is "a movement in literature, music, art, etc., featuring futuristic or science fiction themes which incorporate elements of black history and culture." I've read and watched numerous amounts of Afrofuturistic works in my Afrofuturism class, and I've noticed that they all have several themes in common. Most Afrofuturistic works are set in a post-apocalyptic setting-either in a dystopian or utopian future. This week in class, we watched a film called The Girl With all the Gifts. After watching the film, I noticed that the film resembled many of the works read and watched this quarter in class. In the Girl With all the Gifts, the future is set in a dystopian society. A viral fungus has taken over most of humanity and caused the humans to become flesh-eating monsters. They are doomed to their own death unless they find a cure to this disease. This resembles Dawn because, in Dawn, a novel by Octavia Butler, Butler paints a picture of a dystopia. The earth, as we know it, came to a violent end when a nuclear war broke loose. Only a few survived, because of the help of powerful and extraterrestrial beings. Butler paints this picture to warn people that this is what humanity will come to if we continue with our ways and do not change. Human beings are flawed-and she makes that clear in her book when she emphasizes that we form hierarchies and are violent. Humans are predisposed to conflict, because whenever put together, conflict will arise. This is often referred to as the conflict theorem. On the other hand, in Sun Ra, another film watched this quarter, there is a painted picture of a utopia- a happy, non-hierarchical foreign place where African Americans can live equally and at peace. This story contrasts Dawn and The Girl With all the Gifts, as it shows what could be if human beings change their ways. On the other hand, Butler shows what could be if human beings do not change their ways. Either way, all works see a longing for difference, a longing for change in the human race. Sun Ra just uses an escapism approach while Dawn and The Girl With all the Gifts uses a confronting approach. Another work that uses confrontism is Pumzi, which highlights a dystopia. However, this story is not really about the issue of race, but about human beings’ relationship with nature. The story depicts a dystopia to show what the world could be like if we do not start taking care of the earth. To conclude, in all of these works, the earth, as we know it, is no more and each work has a different approach on what we can do to save the earth and humankind.

The recurring theme of xenophobia, within the black community or outside it, is present in many of Afrofuturistic works. Two Afrofuturstic works that emphasize this theme are Black Panther, The Brother from Another Planet, and Dawn. In Black Panther, Killmonger is seen as the antagonist, the villain, who at first seems like he is pro black-liberation, but later makes it clear that his goal is to dominate the world. He is the protagonist’s, T’challa’s, cousin. T’challa has to go head-to-head with his own blood near the end of the film, which shows aggression and violence toward one’s own. Therefore, the film makes it is apparent that there is an African-American divide. Killmonger’s seeming goals for black liberation also brought about the issue of black people helping others within their community. In The Brother from Another Planet, there is also xenophobia within the black community. We see this when the brother goes to the bar, and a black man tells the bartender to throw away a cup because a foreign black man’s lips touched it. It’s clear that there is also a divide within the black community here as well. The writers of both of these works made this xenophobia a common theme to emphasize that black people, no matter their origin, need to come together instead of divide. In doing so, they will lift eachother up out of their struggles, hardships, and oppression. There is also the theme of xenophobia in Dawn, although not within the black community, but the human race in general. In Dawn, the aliens are repulsive to humans. Octavia Butler, the author, does this on purpose, to show that there is a repulsive force between humans and others that they view as different. Butler writes, “But what she felt was like what she had heard others describe. A true xenophobia-and apparently she was not alone in it,” to emphasize that what Lilith, the main character, felt was xenophobia. To add on, in the novel, in order to save the human race, humans needed to intermix with what’s “different,” the Oankali. Doing so would allow both species to survive and mix with each other. This is how we should save the human race now. By trying to eliminate xenophobia, we take a step towards saving the human race. Comparing Dawn to Brother from Another Planet, in Brother from Another Planet “Black and white are alien to each other” and in Dawn the Oankali and the humans are literal aliens to each other.

Octavia Butler’s Dawn, although mostly about the relationship between extraterrestrials and humans, contains a lot of underlying themes about human nature. One of the central themes in the novel is about the curse of hierarchy, and how human beings have a tendency to form hierarchical structures in society. In the book, the author writes “[Human beings] are hierarchical… Human intelligence [does] not even acknowledge it as a problem, but [takes] pride in it or [does] not notice it at all.” This was remindful of slavery and when we lived in a highly white supremacist society. This is because, when slavery took place and was legal, the vast majority of people recognized it as normal and natural. They believed that it was a part of human nature for white people to enslave black people, because they were far more “supreme” and “better” than them. They perceived themselves as far higher up than African Americans in the hierarchy of society. Many white people actually took pride in their enslavement of African Americans and the amount of slaves that they owned, because, in that society, the more slaves you owned the more powerful, dominant, and rich you were perceived. Another reason why African Americans were enslaved is because white people perceived black people as different, just because the color of their skin did not match that of theirs. African Americans were thought of as something inhuman, as property. This highlights human beings’ fear of otherness, which Butler also touches on in her novel. She characterizes the aliens in her story as disgustingly ugly and horrendous creatures whom humans were terrified by. In fact, some were so terrified, that they fainted or tried to kill the aliens. Joseph, a character in the novel, says to one of the aliens, “I don’t understand why the sight of you should scare me so. You don’t look that threatening. Just… different.” Joseph did not perceive the African Americans as a threat, yet was scared of them just because they did not look like him. The disgust that Joseph had for the aliens because of the differences in their looks mirrors the contempt that white people had for African Americans because of the differences in their skin tones. This emphasizes the fear that people have against people or things that they perceive as different to them. This also touches on the subject of xenophobia, since the aliens were originally from a different place than the humans. Overall, Octavia Butler’s Dawn underlines many important themes that relate to society, like the tendency for human being’s to form a hierarchy, and also the fear that human beings have for things or people that are different than them.

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