Abolition, Afrofuturism, and Black Futures Month

Written by Becca Williams, SBT Copywriter

Black History Month is wrapping up, and it has been quite the honor to spend time learning alongside y’all.  Today, we’re going to talk about Black futures through the lens of abolition and Afrofuturism.  

It has been difficult to be optimistic lately.  On so many levels, we have seen the terribleness that happens when Whiteness weaponize its power.  It feels as though we are in an endless cycle of that old Atari game Pong, only we’re roiling around the imagination of White Supremacy, pinging back and forth between the small walls that we know do not serve us anymore – or at least, we should know by now.  I’m curious about how we can get out of this rut of thinking that the same techniques (electing the same officials, talking about the same reforms) will somehow yield results that will lift us out of the messes those exact techniques got us into. 

The concepts of abolition and Afrofuturism have been around for a very long time and are defined differently depending on who’s defining them.  Having one set of definitions for these terms would be counter-intuitive to their expansiveness, and would give parameters to ideas that thrive in defiance of the parameters placed by White Supremacy.  Similarly to how I felt in my attempt to write about the Red Summer, Carter G. Woodson, Ida B. Wells, and Nikole Hannah-Jones, I know that I am placing parameters in simply writing this piece – let alone being a relative novice to these ideas myself. 

We’ve thus far talked about very intense subjects that relate to the violent manifestations of living in a White Supremacist system, and about the resistance, resilience, and truth-telling that paved the way for discussions around freedom, equity, and liberation. We are living in Ida B. Wells’ and Carter G. Woodson’s future, and there could have been many ways for us to arrive to this time and place.  That said, there are going to be many ways for us to create and arrive to our own distant and near-distant future.  There is a reason why many folx refer to February as Black Futures Month. 

The term “Afrofuturism” is generally believed to be coined by White journalist Mark Dery in the early 1990’s.  Coining the term did not invent the idea, however, which many argue has been in existence for decades, if not centuries.  Some would say that Sojourner Truth’s “Ain’t I A Woman” speech can be read as Afrofuturism.  Very generally speaking, some define it as a way of looking at the past, present, and future all at the same time through a Black cultural lens.  It can be a politic, an aesthetic, an approach, an art form, the spoken word, music, a vision, technology.  Afrofuturism has components of liberation, abolition, mysticism, self-healing, and imagination. 

The above video brings up a fascinating idea that Afrofuturism is a mechanism by which Black people incorporate themselves into stories woven about the future, in a space and time in which Blackness isn’t always considered when the future is envisioned.  I found this idea to be profound, having never experienced not being seen in this way before.  The future is often portrayed as an extension of where we are now had we not critically enacted massive change – for that reason, Whiteness is often front and center. Right now, whatever path we’re on is going to take us to a future that many of us don’t necessarily want and that many communities are actively working to create alternative pathways out of – and I think that’s the self-healing component involved in Afrofuturism.  I know it’s not a space designed by or for me, and I also know that I want to try to facilitate a journey in that direction.      

Abolition means many things to many people.  The Civil War was fought over whether or not slavery should be abolished, and calls to defund the police reflect a recent iteration of that movement.  Abolition in this context generally refers to the idea that many current punitive (carceral) systems – policing, prisons, child welfare, juvenile detention facilities – carry out racist functions of punishing and causing violence and harm to the Black community and communities of color and thus need to be abolished.  Further, the environment that creates these systems (think: capitalism, patriarchy, White Supremacy, imperialism) needs to be addressed so that it, too, can be dismantled.  

Remember, where we are now is the past’s future product of imagination and choice – this makes abolition feel more feasible even as we might struggle to conceive of a world without these systems.  We are steeped in a culture that defines justice as if someone causes us pain, they should be forced to feel pain in return.  We sometimes turn to reform as a remedy, or to talking points around removing some of the “bad apples”, or the idea that some folx are inherently criminal enough to warrant the prison system.  Abolitionist thinking calls for complete abolition – not demilitarization, not reform.  There is no way to create less excessive policing or to reform an inherently abusive and racist system (read: a system that continually thrives and profits from abuse and racism). 

When we think of policing as an extension of slave patrols, or of the idea that hurt people hurt people, or of the brutal inadequacies of a system that disproportionately incarcerates people of color for crimes while lining the pockets of the wealthy few, then we can start to understand the need for abolition.  Our prison-focused system is adversarial, causing people to deny that they ever harmed the other person or community to begin with so as to avoid punishment – leaving no one to take accountability for what happened.  Abolition calls for a future free from violence, where accountability is centered in transformative (and not punitive) justice systems.

(Infographic about transformative justice, specific to gender-based violence, from vawnet.org)

Having worked with survivors of violence for years, it’s been my experience that many survivors I work with have wanted the perpetrator to understand that what they did was wrong, to apologize, to make amends to the community, and for the community to help ensure that the violence doesn’t happen again.  Our policing, prison, and court systems do not provide space for that level of accountability, but abolition does.  It’s a cultural shift – police currently respond to calls that many other community folk can respond to and address, in addition to responding to calls that are often not crimes, such as mental health or substance use crises, or simply when a tail light is out.  We have witnessed far too many instances when, because the person in question is Black, these encounters have led to violence and death.

Black women have played a significant role in influencing the landscape of and intersections between abolition and Afrofuturistic art, culture, thought, science fiction, and praxis. When we think about abolition, we think about building and shaping a new and different world – one that we haven’t yet experienced.  Mariame Kaba, who helped fundraise for the Ida B. Wells monument, writes, “Let’s begin our abolitionist journey not with the question, ‘What do we have now and how can we make it better?’  Instead, let’s ask, ‘What can we imagine for ourselves and the world?’” (from her book We Do This ‘Til We Free Us). Now, when we think about the world we want to have, we may get stuck in thinking about the things we don’t want: violence, racism, fascism, White Supremacy, misogyny, capitalism.  Afrofuturism helps us think a little beyond that into the realm of what it would look like to live in a world entirely free from White Supremacy and interference not from a place of absence but rather abundance- a world like Wakanda, from Black Panther (a very accessible and mainstream Afrofuturistic representation).  

Author Octavia Butler is often cited for her speculative fiction that links ideas of social justice to Afrofuturism. Her Parable Series is an excellent example of how we are currently living in the future predicted decades ago, and the things we can do now to shape the world we want. Just one example of how pertinent this series is: written in the early 1990s, it foresaw an American President whose catchphrase was “Make America Great”. Butler’s writing isn’t entirely bleak, though, and follows the story of a young Black woman, Lauren Olamina, as she shapes a new world based on community, learning, and adapting to the inevitable truth of change.  Many activists have carried her work forward, creating podcasts, operas, and continuing writing in her fashion through the creation of the book Octavia’s Brood in which social justice activists write speculative fiction around the worlds they themselves envision.  

(Author Octavia Butler, Star Trek Actor Nichelle Nichols, and Afrofuturist musician Sun Ra)

I encourage you to read, listen, and engage with this more of this material, as uncomfortable and different as it might be.  In episode 13 of Wanda’s podcast, Come Get Your White People, Wanda speaks with her coach and friend Marvette about the journey she is on in starting the A.B.L.E. Institute. They talk about building something that hasn’t yet been built, and I know that when I speak to Wanda she often refers not only to her upbringing but also to where she wants humanity to be 10 years from now, and how we can get on that path toward liberation today.  When we talk about liberation, we are often talking about the core components of abolition.  When we are talking about abolition, we are talking about actively creating a time where we don’t rely on these painful structures and we have the space to dream and shape the many pathways toward our future.

Additional Resources:

There is a lot out there on Afrofuturism, and a lot that is considered Afrofuturistic.  For those with access, check out HBO’s Lovecraft Country (especially episode 7).  For the musically inclined, Sun-Ra is well known for his enduring Afrofuturistic visions.  Janelle Monae is another artist to check out in this realm. 

(Janelle Monae's ArchAndroid album)

Here is a curated list of other media to engage with, some of which is discussed above, and some of which talks about the intersections between Afrofuturism and abolition.

This short article does a great job outlining abolition as it relates to defunding the police, and here’s a blurb of Mariame Kaba talking about her vision.

Another aspect to this conversation is the radical act of resting, specifically the radical act of Black bodies resting.  Check out this article in which Patrisse Cullors interviews Tricia Hersey, the Nap Bishop, about Tricia’s performance art and organization, The Nap Ministry.