Wakanda CP

File Notes: The CP competes via the Terrorism DA net benefit. It also has an
internal net benefit afro-futurism/fabulation. The criticism: U.S. centered arms
control does not lead to a reduction of conflict but rather increases tensions
and ends in disposable countries being the justification for further Western
primacy. The CP is a refusal and declaration for no deals with the United States.
*US key warrants or the link turns of the DA that specify why the aff’s arms
control reduction is key to solve conflict are good answers to the CP as well as
exist in other files produced by the camp. Theory competition: Utopian Fiat,
International Actor Fiat.
Thank you to the following students that have helped create and put together
the CP: Sriya, Nikki, and Rohith!
NEG
 1NC
CP Text: The Kingdom of Wakanda should
 Create a new international network across the African Diaspora that
refuses to accept any and all arms control commitments from Western
Actors.
 Conventionally rearm to unsettle Eurocentric control of black agency and
sovereignty
 Disperse tech to black revolutionary groups to dismantle white
supremacist structures.

Now is a crucial turning point in continental African relations and global

relations with Black people – Wakanda has already promised to help Black folks
in need at its’ global outreach centers with medical vibranium resources but
still has the resources to spread across the continent and globally. The CP
transforms and ensures Wakanda’s political engagement as an energy
abundance that rivals global imperial projects.
Williams 18 (Jennifer – Assistant Professor of AFAM @ Loyola Marymount University, “Wakanda Shakes the World,” Foreign
Policy)

It’s been six weeks since the “Wakanda speech,” and the world is still reeling. The
announcement by King T’Challa at
the United Nations General Assembly that the Kingdom of Wakanda is not a developing nation
of textiles, farms, and shepherds — estimated in the 2016 CIA World Factbook to have a GDP per person of
approximately $760 — but a technological superpower has left global leaders and analysts stunned .
The term “uber-developed” nation has been coined to describe the country’s widespread use of
advanced magnetic levitation trains, flying vehicles, opaque holograms, and spinal cord-healing
beads. “Welcome to the Future,” an introductory film produced by Wakanda’s newly founded Ministry
of Foreign Affairs, is now the most watched video ever on YouTube . T’Challa himself provides a
voice-over describing the country’s semi-mythical history, tracing back to the impact of a
vibranium meteorite, and the subsequent foundation of the country by five tribes, giving it the
name “Wakanda” — “The Family.” As a camera swoops over brush, the trees themselves seem to glitch, and a futuristic
skyline resembling a mixture of New York, Timbuktu, and Cairo appears. The video goes on to detail Wakanda’s
claimed hyper-achievements: nanotechnology that allows for replicable organs, an average
lifespan in the 100s, and a quality of life for the ordinary citizen that surpasses that enjoyed by
the top 1 percent in the United States. If Wakanda’s technology was limited to medicine, global
anxiety might be less acute. But Wakanda’s stocks of vibranium, the supermaterial previously
used in the construction of “weapons of cosmic destruction,” is arousing particular worry.
General Okoye of the River Tribe, taking to the podium after T’Challa’s speech, made the Wakadan position
clear. “We will not provide weapons, but instead we will offer our human resources to mediate
conflicts. We will only offer vibranium-based technologies to those in need.” Questions were
immediately raised about the general’s own famous appearance surfing on the roof of a car in South Korea in a red dress; she
quickly replied “it was an impromptu example of the car’s safety features,” and relinquished the microphone. “They use this
material casually,” commented U.S. Secretary of State Thaddeus Ross, “How
can a tribal nation like this be trusted
with such destructive potential?” While the United States reportedly has a back channel to the
Wakandan leadership, Russia and China have already arranged high-level summits.
Economists are perplexed as to how Wakanda’s shift from supposedly one of the poorest
nations in the world to the richest will affect the global economy, especially given Wakanda’s
own market-averse policies. In the United States, an emergent migration crisis has prompted
a strong response from both Wakandan and U.S. officials. The newly expanded Wakandan
Embassy has been besieged by prospective immigrants, the vast majority African-American,
while tens of thousands more have written letters requesting asylum. Applicants argue that
they are subject to continual persecution in the United States, that their lives are at risk from
official violence, and that Wakanda owes a moral duty to provide asylum after its centuries of
willfully ignoring atrocities in Africa and among the diaspora. Many African Americans have
taken to social media to express their newfound allegiance to Wakanda and adopted the
cross-arm over chest salute to demonstrate their loyalty to the Wakandan crown. Fox News,
meanwhile, has run 24-hour coverage of “The Wakandan Threat.” Newly appointed Ambassador
Nakia of Wakanda’s River Tribe stressed that the country has not opened its borders to outside
visitors but urged a visit to their outreach centers. “If you want to experience Wakanda first-hand, the Oakland,
California, center will be complete by the end of this month; and we have four other centers that will be completed soon in Salvador,
Brazil; Wollongong, Australia; and Al-Fashir, Sudan. “These centers will be hubs of creativity and innovation. Wakandan scientists
and scholars will work with the local populations to assist with meeting the needs of the people of those regions,” Nakia said. “Our
pioneering nutritional program in Oakland has already achieved startling results. We expect to expand our outreach centers to 20
more cities in the coming years.” In Europe, the revelations about Wakanda have been met with disbelief. German Minister of
Economics and Energy Erik Lehnsherr stated that during a trip to assess climate change impact in the continent, he was escorted by
the “Border Tribe” members in their purple robes to various small villages and marketplaces. “They were mostly herders, and their
way of life seemed simple. Where is this great city of Birnin Zana, the Golden City, of which they speak? Behind a rhino?” he
quipped. On returning from an initial visit to Wakanda organized by T’Challa — beginning with a 20-minute trip from Vienna to the
African capital, of which T’Challa noted, “We took the scenic route” — Jamaican
Observer reporter Joseph Clifton
spoke of the country’s technology as “beyond science fiction.” “They let us use these beaded bracelets to
communicate with our family. They can interact with any surface — including clothing, food, and plants. Everything. The Kimoyo
bead even detected that my white blood cells were effectively killing a virus and asked if I wanted nanobots to assist.” Kamala Khan,
an Urdu translator attached to the U.N., was particularly impressed with Wakandan diversity and linguistic flexibility “Many of them
already speak at least six languages. Also, the Wakandan people are very concerned about the state of the world — and, while they
have immense resources in Wakanda, they remain wary of how private interests could use vibranium technology to further their
agendas over the public good.” T’Challa’s
follow-up speeches at the U.N. have spurred African leaders to
hold an emergency African Union meeting on the role the new Wakanda would assume in
relation to its neighbors, and the rest of the continent. Some African leaders have expressed
anger over the era of Wakandan secrecy, claiming the country turned its back on the plight of its
neighbors. Others are applauding its isolationist policies. South African President Cyril
Ramaphosa was among the most outspoken African leaders, noting, “The shift of power
relations will center on Africa instead of Western powers.” There have been rumors that African
nations will break ties with former colonial powers and turn to Wakanda for aid instead, while
the history of covert Wakandan assistance to South Africa’s ANC during the apartheid era has
already aroused controversy. Ultimately, the world is asking what the implications of this development are for the global
future. What does it mean when an African nation sets the political and technological agenda for
the world?
Imagining Futures outside of the Eurocentric depictions of conflict and terror
are key—assimilation into capital regimes won’t save the people the plan
supposedly protects.
Herzig 18(Rachel- communications coordinator for RoadMap, a team from across the country dedicated to advancing the
power and promise of social justice organizations, long-time organizer and a co-founder of Critical Resistance, a national grassroots
organization dedicated to abolishing the prison industrial complex, “The Courage to Invent the Future*,” Reading Wakanda,
http://www.socallib.org/reading-wakanda/courage)

Black Panther has captured the imaginations of millions of people across the planet. The
overwhelming enthusiasm and excitement people are expressing about the film makes me wonder how we can engage that
enthusiasm and excitement to advance campaigns and projects to transform the material conditions of Black people in our families,
neighborhoods, organizations, and larger communities.
Seeing Wakanda depicted as an African civilization
that developed free from the constraints of colonialism opens up new terrains on which to
imagine alternative Black histories, and by extension Black futures. What if the genocidal
domination and occupation that altered the course of African development across the continent
had not occurred? What if those peoples’ natural resources had not been wrenched from their
hands? What if art, culture, and technology had developed unabated rather than being silenced,
suppressed, and destroyed? What if all of that was fueled by a magical mineral that could seemingly do anything?
Engaging deeply with what ifs is not simply the purview of science fiction and superheroes,
but also that of movements for radical social change. What if everyone were guaranteed a universal basic
income? What if no one lacked for safe housing? What if people could move freely and without repercussion across borders; or what
While it’s probably ill-advised to rely too heavily
if there were no borders? What if war were a thing of the past?
on fictional accounts for organizing lessons, I have been thinking a lot about ways that the
expanded horizons offered by Black Panther could be mobilized to expand the political horizons
of people who find radical social change too fantastical. In that spirit, I offer a handful of potential lessons from
Black Panther for our movements. Internationalism Is Essential No group can build a more self-determined future alone. Oppressed
groups committed to shifting power relations are stronger for seeing their fates as bound together and working collaboratively to
Black Panther’s Wakanda has
transform conditions not just for themselves, but for those to whom their fate is tied.
maintained a centuries-long practice of isolationism and has intentionally hidden behind a false
front to maintain its magical mineral wealth even while witnessing the impacts of colonialism
decimating its neighbors. The character of Killmonger is the film’s strongest voice against
isolationism. He is also portrayed as a diabolical political extremist. While Wakanda chooses to become
more open to international relations, notably mediated by a white CIA agent and via the United Nations, for people who care about
building a more liberated future for Black people, it could be wise to reflect on historical lessons for building people’s power rooted
in internationalism. The Third World, as Vijay Prashad reminds us, was conceived as a project, not a place .
Even while fighting
for national liberation, the “darker nations” worked to create agreements that aimed at
addressing the conditions imperiling them both individually and collectively. Historical projects
from the League against Imperialism and the Non-Aligned Movement to the Bandung and
Tricontinental Conferences hoped to decrease the threats of colonization and war, to increase
economic equity, and to increase democracy such that nations that had been marginalized could
exercise more power in international spheres. These projects, often fueled by the energy of strong people’s
movements and anti-colonial campaigns, struggled under the weight of imperial powers that understood the threats posed by these
joint efforts. However, they also built substantial networks that offered ideological and strategic as well as financial and other
A powerful Black
material support, from arms to medicine to human beings, used to gain and maintain independence.
future requires a commitment to a durable solidarity that spans national borders and engages
rather than rejects diasporic populations. Women in the Lead The presence of powerful women is essential and
having women and gender nonconforming people who kick ass around us makes many more things possible. But those women must
do more than caretake, protect, defend, advise, or even make technological advances. They must lead. We won’t advance liberation
struggles without women holding genuine power and crafting strategy.
Revolutionary movements have frequently
failed to adequately integrate women and gender nonconforming people into their leadership.
Further, the lion’s share of political and social movements pushing for social change around the
world are made possible by women’s labor even when they are not afforded the respect of
being seen as those movements’ leaders. If we can dream anything we want, why not correct this error? Our
current period offers examples of young Black women and trans people demanding leadership
in the fights for their futures. Black Youth Project 100, Asata’s Daughters, SpiritHouse, TGI
Justice Project, and similar groups are advancing programs for Black liberation in the U.S. that
are also explicitly rooted in the intentional leadership of Black women and gender
nonconforming people. These organizations draw from the long history of Black women’s leadership and apply lessons to
contemporary conditions. Black Power Is Beautiful I was as dazzled as any Black Panther viewer by the parade of Black people in the
film. People representing a variety of cultures, embodying a variety of hues, and fulfilling a variety of roles. A world of Black people.
We’re often absent from mainstream representations of life or relegated to narrow depictions that deny us connection to our full,
complicated humanity, and many of us are hungry to see ourselves reflected in the culture we consume. While Black surely is
beautiful, having more of us in the picture, even in our grandeur, isn’t enough to transform our conditions.
To live
meaningful, self-determined lives requires shifting power. Those shifts will not come from
embracing capitalism, hoarding natural resources, and getting ours. They will come from
confronting our oppressors, from undermining their power and legitimacy, from sabotaging
their tools, and from building our own power to fight back . We would be wise to not be distracted by moves
to more inclusion or better representations that don’t ultimately increase our self-determination as well. STEM Won’t Save Us As
Black Panther closes, we see the Wakandans magnanimously planning a technology education center in West Oakland at the site of
the villainized character Killmonger’s childhood home. Rather than support liberation struggles waged by Africans and Black people
in diaspora by sharing a magical mineral that can do all things, the Wakandans offer science, technology, engineering, and math
(STEM) education. This conclusion suggests that Black people are pressed down, not by systematic deprivation of the resources
necessary for our liberation, but by our own ignorance. The long history of Black people being denied access to education or being
burdened with substandard white supremacist education is well documented, and high-quality STEM education is certainly a
benefit.
Advances in science and technology devoid of a political program aimed at self-
determination, however, reek of the same bootstraps mentality that has characterized
discussions of Black people’s oppression. By the way, Disney, which has already made upwards of $800 million in
ticket sales on Black Panther since it opened, is making a one-time donation of $1 million to the Boys & Girls Clubs of America to
advance its existing STEM programming and to build new STEM centers in 12 cities including Oakland. This donation amounts to
about $80,000 per site, with no ongoing commitment from Disney to sustain the centers. While we’re all still feeling excited about
what Black people are capable of and energized about a future for Black people liberated from the chains of colonialism, let us
remained focused on building programs and engaging people in fights that not only make us smarter but help us fight better. Hooray
for the Anti-Hero Is it wrong that I want to see the movie where Killmonger wins? Black Panther’s villainized Killmonger is Oakland
born and bred. That director Ryan Coogler chooses his home town as the location of diasporic Blackness doesn’t strike me as a
Oakland remains a Black city in many ways, despite unrelenting efforts by capital to
coincidence.
change its stripes. Oakland is also synonymous with Black liberation and an enduring legacy of
Black radicalism including organizing Pullman porters, the Black Panther Party for Self
Defense, or the contemporary fights against the violence of policing. We learn that Killmonger’s father,
the would-be crown prince of Wakanda, has been “radicalized” by the hardships he saw while acting as a spy based in Oakland. He is
identified as a traitor and killed to repress that radicalism, but his kid is left behind. Interestingly, Killmonger’s vengeance is less
based on blood feud than bitterness that Wakanda stood by while Black people across the world faced genocidal violence, and he
ultimately chooses death over a subjugated life. From his fatigues to his swagger, Killmonger fulfills the Hollywood stereotyped
His radicalism, born of suffering and deprivation, is hungry, aggressive, and
revolutionary mold.
single-minded. Similarly stereotyped is the impression that his radical politics also signal a desire
to turn the tables and not only kill his enemies, but dominate everyone else. It’s a missed opportunity
that flattens complex politics to a pair of fatigues or a fist in the air, in service of a villainous foil to advance plot points. Perhaps it’s
more useful to see Killmonger as an anti-hero than a villain. The best revolutionary impulses are frequently fraught with
His commitment to liberating vibranium ore and thereby liberating Black
contradictions and missteps.
people across the world influences a change in Wakanda’s isolationism. His disruption troubles the
luxury and comfort the Wakandans are so afraid of losing. He is an agent of change and transformation who
exposes the Wakandan contradictions not avoided even with strict isolationism. Maybe Black
Panther is a film in which Killmonger wins after all . How can we navigate complexity and contradiction in our
own leaders and movements without papering over mistakes and flaws? Embrace Expansive Horizons If moviegoers will
embrace the fantastical world of Wakanda and its alternate reality, if they enthusiastically
cheer for this place and its people and proclaim #WakandaForever, can we get them to accept
an expanded version of possible futures in our own place and time? When we think about the
world we want, we often seek a more even distribution of power and resources. We seek means of
addressing harm that don’t rely on placing human beings in cages or completely diminishing their humanity . We seek stable,
safe housing. We seek meaningful, non-exploitative work. We seek the freedom to move freely
and without fear of repercussion. We seek physical, mental, and emotional health and
accessible resources to maintain that health. We seek a relationship with the natural world that maintains balance
and rejects harmful extractive and polluting practices that jeopardize that balance. These are not utopian visions, or science fiction
fantasies. They are dreams of a near future toward which millions of people across the world are working today. These visions
Even as some of us embrace the
require us to think more creatively and expansively about how we fight, however.
powerful African world offered via Wakanda, can we not imagine better for Black people in
our own world? Can we not embrace a vision of building power that understands our fates as
intimately linked and that sees genuine, material solidarity between oppressed peoples as
essential to overturning that oppression? Can we not imagine social and political structures that see power sharing
and collaboration as equally as impressive as monarchies and structures headed by strongmen? Can we not reach beyond
Why must even our wildest fantasies about
economies rooted in natural resource extraction to be hoarded?
what Black people could create be tethered by the very structures and forces that have been
at the heart of our domination, repression, and that have fueled our premature death? Black
Panther has ignited the imaginations of millions of Black people eager to see Black people
represented more powerfully. Will organizers for social change be able to help extend that eagerness to making changes
in our own world today?

The CP reveals the psychic tensions within imperialism that code revolutionary
blackness as a threat to be managed. Thus, Wakanda is not imaginary but
emblematic of a historical legacy of colonialism and slavery that the black
radical tradition has used in order to postulate futures.
Batiste 18(Stephanie- an associate professor in the Black Studies & English departments @UC
Santa Barbara, “Dream Work: Fantasy, Desire, and the Creation of a Just World (or Killmonger’s
Step-Children),” Reading Wakanda) SVN
I took a photo with the Black Panther poster at my local movie theater months before the film was released. I couldn’t wait until it came out and saw it
twice in the week after its opening. The film is as satisfying as Marvel gets. The Black Panther is a gorgeous and extravagant fantasy on par with every
other Marvel film of this century, all of which I have seen. Even Black folks who are not fans of superhero movies are feeling Black Panther. My sister
who has seen none of the franchise loved it. Her favorite line was King T’Chaka’s admonition to his son T’Challa in the ancestral realm, “Stand Up, You
Are A King.” The other thing she loves is how
it has our people feeling themselves. I love that she noticed this.
Everybody is walking around with their version of a Nigerian, Ghanaian, or South African accent
depending on their favorite character. The admonition for self-love and powerful display of
calm nobility resonate with pleasure and play. Families are talking about it and developing opinions about characters,
images, actors, and storylines. We are tired of seeing Forrest Whitaker die, but thank him for his bold representational service. Daniel Kaluuya from Get
Out got swole! How can I get an Okoye skull cap (to cos-play the warrior enlivened by Danai Gurira)—Okoye’s transcendent love—and oh, also, her
undetectable retractable spear? I love the fearsomeness of the embedded Jabari tribe, with its problematic in-your-face emblem, as an even deeper
figment of unabashed Black power vying for dominance. bpwarriors.JPG In
an openly white supremacist political moment
in the U.S. where racism exudes from the highest office, where Republicans have escorted or
beaten Black men and women out of political rallies, celebrated openly racist violence, and then
appointed a Black person to stand behind 45 to hypocritically verify his lack of racism, it is very
nice to see Black people loving themselves. At a time when a simple statement “Black Lives Matter”—coined to rebut the
violent action of taxpayer-funded police to the contrary—becomes controversial, it’s very nice. Everybody wants to go to

Wakanda, to believe in Wakanda, and thus to believe in the beauty and power of ourselves.
Black Panther not only serves up Black representation, but like Black writers of fantasy and science fiction including
Octavia Butler, N.K. Jemisin, Steven Barnes, and Nnedi Okorafor, it also offers an exciting and dramatic play on the

future. We are there. And, by the way, withholding our ability to truly run this piece. Cecil Rhodes Cecil
Rhodes It is beautiful to reconstruct our memory of a great Black continent holding in its heart a

secret treasure, an invaluable cache of a universally powerful substance so volatile that it must
be protected by the virtuous Wakandans from humans’ evil nature. But of course this is not so far off the
historical truth where for 500 years Africa was mined for precious resources including, but not limited

to gold, uranium, jewels, wood, oil, ivory, etc. and, of course, people to grow the wealth of the
imperial West. Folk who watch the movies, but know less about the comic books, might not realize that most Marvel comics are political. They
address and allegorize their contemporary moment. But because of its Blackness, the Black Panther film remains political where the other films look
more like impossible fantasy in which a hero/ine fights to save the city, nation, world, galaxy, and so on from an impossible threat. On
this
planet here, where the African continent and its nations were actually mined for metals,
minerals, and flesh, telling the story of “The Black Panther” is inalterably a political one . Let us not
forget either that its title is taken from a radical political movement founded in Oakland to establish the freedom of Black people in the United States
and in the world. In the 1960s the
Black Panthers created and ran real community centers to feed and
teach Black people and the poor without the unlimited secret resources of a great nation.
Rather they dedicated their own love, defiance, and volunteer hours to feed children and
create a presence of Blackness that transformed the image of Black people in the world
forever. The historical analog for a Black Panther is, of course N’Jobu, who becomes “radicalized” by the pain he sees in urban Oakland and steals
vibranium to try to free the people. The film gets confused here in its celebration and demonization of the hope and legacies of the Panthers, taking
both its hero and its villain from the same historical ground. Here in the midst of Black wonder, we see the impact of mainstream ambivalence towards
Black freedom dreams and their revolutionary potential. Revolutionary desire is both demonized as dangerous radicalization, fearsome when
unchecked, and exalted as the deep secret fueling responsible feudalism as a foundation for royal rule. LAPD officers arrest Black Panther members
after raid on the party headquarters December 8th, 1969. LAPD officers arrest Black Panther members after raid on the party headquarters December
8th, 1969. The consequences of the long history of colonialism and slavery open the story we encounter on the screen. With
the abandoned
childhood of Erik Stephens we see the impact of the rupture from “Africa” on a “child” left
behind, not stolen or sold away. But, of course, the analogy is barely veiled. In fact my same sister felt like a “message” block of the
kind in Don’t Be a Menace to South Central While Drinking Your Juice in the Hood could have appeared every time Erik Stephens/Michael B. Jordan
spoke. (I love her willingness not to get sucked in by the movie magic in real time. But to see clearly its ideological thread in the fabric of its wonder.)
This righteous rage, however, with which we are so familiar, is precisely what makes
“Killmonger,” probably, the most sympathetic and justified villain in all the Marvel Comic
Universe. (Perhaps he is a key to villainy, in which films root villainy in experience while rooting heroes in our best hopes for our better selves.)
Killmonger is the boiled-down rage of half a millennium of slavery, genocide, rape, diabolical
violence, theft, and legalized oppression and dispossession that has scourged Black people on
this planet since the beginning of the triangle trade. Jordan embodies that fearsomeness with size, strength, and
charisma. It is hard to see him die. My 9-year-old son cried. I teared up. In a violent world, our feeling of understanding the

logic of his goals for restitution and retribution is hard to deny. In fact our filmic training to support the underdog in
a denial of tyranny kicks in. As a being and a force, Killmonger is one logical response to what has been

heaped upon him in personal, historical, and symbolic terms . He is not irrationally diabolical,
nor is he simply the victim of childhood harm. His father is executed, in this case, by the very
nation he loves. (More broadly in a larger allegory of historical legacies, here is yet another
model of slavery. It is one that seeks to release Europe and America of some of their
responsibility for imperial slavery by making African nations and tribes the “castrating father” of
a mongrel Black American population. This is perhaps another story. But weren’t those same substitute patriarchs also guilty?)
Killmonger is also the projection and manifestation of the sins and fears of his oppressors .
Black people have on rare occasion had the freedom or will to act with the annihilating violence
Killmonger manifests. It is his inheritance, having been trained in it by his national “home.” White
Brit cum American intelligence agent Martin Freeman/Everett declares, “He’s one of ours.” Killmonger redoubles the violence he

has received by marking his murderous personal and nationalistic aggressions on his own body.
It is unfair to ask one body to bear the weight of global, historical, misanthropic, and misogynist
violence, and then to blame him for it. But isn’t this the way things have been? Not so ironically,
Killmonger’s methods are not unique to him. Instead, like his rage, it is inherited from his
instructors in violence. In this, the film gives us nationalist violence and imperial war as the origin of
Killmonger’s methods. This might be the closest we’ll ever get to an admission of guilt and
responsibility for the impacts of slavery and persistent white supremacist violence. Perhaps it is for
these reasons, the story forces him to choose his own death. Anyone else killing him delivers a spear

to the heart of freedom, even on the barest eye-for-an-eye terms of justice that cruelty,
aggression, and annihilation can instill. Who could take responsibility for annihilating all that
Killmonger represents—who could annihilate the hopes of freedom and self-determination,
the rage at brutalization and dispossession accumulated over centuries ? It would mean too much, there
would have to be change even if only in coming to representational terms with the injustice of
race-based oppression and the mechanics of nationalist power. (Notice that it is the American ultimately who
downs Killmonger’s weapons shipments to maintain the balance of power in the outside world, not the Wakandans and certainly not a repentant
Killmonger.) As a protest–oriented, righteous, independent anti-hero, Killmonger has valid claims
against power. Killing him would upend Western claims towards general liberation and
enfranchisement that hero movies reproduce. These binary terms of justice depicted in Marvel are precisely the basis upon
which violent nationalisms persist in fantasy and in life. The romance of Killmonger’s childhood visions of an

undifferentiated peaceful land by a waterfall (that’s from the cowardly Lion in The Wiz) is
precisely the romance of our wishes for return, for a healing within and between ourselves of
centuries of apocalyptic violence. Killmonger has longed for Wakanda, dreamed up Wakanda.
His 400 years of rage, of loss and displacement, of trauma, of fantasy, wish, and dreaming fuel
the romance that tickles our imagination and sparks our yearning. He serves as the impetus,
the fulcrum of this great continuing dream of freedom, autonomy, self-realization and power
—even in his archly imperialist and masculinist terms. “Stand Up, You Are a King.” In a dream towards kingliness, both
the hero and the villain embody desires for autocratic strength, one towards a feudal nationalist isolation and the other towards imperialist global
domination. These notions of power are both painfully nostalgic for patriarchal rule. Thus Black Panther’s dreams for an Africanist autonomy, for
power, retribution, and self-sufficiency are not also magically pure, like Nakia’s dreams of charity and resource-sharing. As exciting as adventure films
are in their pull on our senses, this one also recalls and pulls on our sense of loss and wanting, and not always in transformational terms. The cheap
reading of Killmonger is that he simply repeats the sins of his white, Western masters, “He’s one of ours,” and thus earns ideological dismissal as a
shameful, vengeful violence—one to which we are less apt to hold his teachers. We know much better than to assume such a condescending
orientation towards Black insurgency, however. What Killmonger's, T’Challa's, and Wakanda’s ideological failings
offer us is a call to be mindful of the terms of our own dreams. It reminds us that our dreams
need tending, like the communities we would like to see manifested in our material lives. Glinda
the Good Witch, played by the fantabulous Lena Horne also in The Wiz, might say Wakanda “is in your heart, in your mind.…” The dream has

us looking in so many directions—in memory and fantasy, outward towards Black nations
globally, to the power of our pocketbooks to choose and encourage more satisfying
representation, and hopefully to our own varied domestic conditions of physical, economic,
legal, ecological, and political freedom. The historical Black Panthers offer a model for engaged
community work as well as engaged social and political critique and refashioning. A diluted version of
this possibility is embedded in the film’s resolution as the Wakandans return to Oakland to honor the legacy of the historical Black Panthers’ social
programs in place of the evisceration a spiritually ravenous Killmonger desired to quench his justified cyclonic pain. Regardless of the mainstream’s
ability repeatedly to depict a yearning for freedom against the terms of injustice, it never imagines a bold way to get us there. It’s another deal the film
makes in its negotiation of the Panthers’ revolutionary impulse in service of its neoliberal appropriation of Black radicalisms. And yet, this
Disney
film borrows the radical dreams of brave social activists to put forth the “peaceful, liberated”
home towards which all climactic Marvel battles aspire. The Black Panthers make the dream of a
better world, then, real, not radical, but simply reasonable; more real, I would argue, than any
other Marvel fantasy’s earthbound or galactic present we have seen so far. It is our powerful
vision that crafts the better world that a love of “Wakanda (Forever)” testifies to our desire to
make and sustain. The terms of this imagination need constant tending, but, if anything, the
love urges us to insist on realizing in the present the worlds of our dreams.
 Solvency-BP Code Switching
Black Panther as a rhetorical device encompassed the process of code switching
within the black body – we embrace this transition
Gavenila and Arsadiak 18(Euodia Inge Gavenila is an author for Sanata Dharma University, Yohanes Arsadiak is an
author at Sanata Dharma University) , “INVESTIGATING FACTORS AFFECTING CODE SWITCHING IN BLACK PANTHER MOVIE AS A
RESULT OF AFROFUTURISM IN FILMS”, Learning English in the Modern Era , 2018, http://ucpbiusd.com/wp-
content/uploads/2018/09/Proceedings-UC-2018_Revised.pdf#page=91(pg. 83-91)
A. INTRODUCTION Code switching is commonly found in movies especially in those which
involve two or more languages. According to Auer (1998), in the last twenty years, scientific interests in phenomena of
bilingual speech, particularly code switching are inclining significantly. On 2018, a big hit movie named Black Panther
emerged as one movie which encompasses code switching of two languages which are
American English and a real South African language, Xhosa. In Black Panther, code switching
phenomena are encountered as the effect of Afro-futurism in film. La-Fleur (2011) as cited in
Womack (2013, p. 9) said that, "I generally define Afro-futurism as a way of imagining possible
futures through black cultural lens". This means Afro-futurism can depict the future identity of
African-American (Afro), which one of them can be seen through its language aspect which is
code switching provided in the movie. There are factors which are influenced the code-
switching phenomena in the movie. Generally, the code switching occurs because of quotations, reiteration, topic-
comment/relative clauses, hedging, interjections and idioms and deep-rooted cultural wisdom (Bhatia & Ritche, 2004, as cited in
Kim, 2006). In this paper, the researchers aim to discuss factors affecting code switching in Black Panther as an effect of
Afrofuturism. B. REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE In order to support this research, the researchers would like to review three
related literatures which are code switching, Afro-futurism, and language repertoire. Each of the theories will be explained as
follows. Code Switching a. Definition This world consists of many different countries which have various languages. For example,
United State of America uses English as their lingua franca language. It is different from Indonesia that uses Bahasa Indonesia as the
lingua franca. Lingua franca is used when a group people with different mother-tongue live in the same area. It is used to connect
with each other. However, when people have a conversation with people from the same region, they will change the language they
use. In Indonesia, people from Yogyakarta are mostly speaking Javanese with fellow Jogja people, but when they meet other people
Code switching is important in order to be
from other places, they may use Bahasa Indonesia as the lingua franca.
understood by others who have multilingual languages. Lehiste as cited in Auer (1998, p. 76)
said that, "a perfect bilingual may switch from language to language during a conversation. This
phenomenon is called code switching”. In general, code switching is the practice of alternating
between two or more varieties of language within a domain or social situation. b. Types of Code
Switching Poplack in Romaine’s (1994, p. 178) divides code switching based on the grammatical classification into three types: 1)
Inter-Sentential The inter-sentential code switching is a switch at a part or a sentence border. Each part or sentence is in a certain
language or in other languages. This variety is the most difficult kind of code switching subsequently it requires grander speaking
ability in both languages. 2) Intra-Sentential Intra-sentential code switching is the most common of code switching in bilingual
conversation. This code switching permits an impression that the speakers are insufficiently proficient in other languages to end
what they want to express and say in one language. 3) Extra-Sentential or Tag Switching Extra-sentential or Tag Switching comprises
the tag insertion in a language into exclamation. The last type involves the insertion of tag in one language into utterance, for
Switching Code switching occurs
example: “It is a nice day, Hana? I mean, well, hmm okay.” c. Factors Affecting Code
because there are factors which affect bilingual people in one community . One language is overused
towards the other language because the speakers may find it more contented by using it. According to Grosjean (1982), speakers
generate code-switch because of their interlocutors, situations, messages, attitudes, and
emotions. In addition, there are some other factors that affect code switching such as
participant roles and reltionship, message-intrinsic, security, and culture . These are the elaborations.
1) Participant Roles and Relationship Bhatia and Ritchie (2004) remark that participant’s roles and relationships play a very critical
role in bilinguals’ unconscious agreement and disagreement on language choice. Code switching in this class can act as
an expression of solidarity, symbolizes a change in the relationship from a personal interaction
to a formal one, or even distance a speaker from his or her interlocutor.
2) Message-Intrinsic Some reasons of code switching are also highly related to the messages alone. Some people use code
switching when they want to deliver explicit meaning without their interlocutors knowing it. The
other reasons for people do code switching are to express affection rather than referential meaning, disapproval, ambivalent feeling
about a certain topic in a discussion.
3) Security A research which was conducted by Grosjeans (1982) about a code switch between Russian and English established
factors that affect code switching are language attitudes, dominance, and security. In his study, a respondent said, “When I speak to
another Russian-English bilingual, I don’t speak as carefully and often the languages blend. This also happens when I am tired or
excited or angry.” (p. 150). It means that code switching users will feel more secure if they use a certain
code. Generally, people will switch a code when they want to speak certain secrecy to keep the message secured.
4) Culture Culture is also one factor that can affect code switching. Code switching in this part can serve as an
ethnic identity maker among a larger group of people. This usually happens in a place with a lot
of immigrants, like America, which is well-known as a melting-pot.
2. Afrofuturism in Films Besides the mentioned factors that may affect code switching above, there is another special
factor that may trigger code-switching especially in film industry. That special factor is Afro-
futurism.
a. Definition According to Yamaoka and Kelly (2015) the term Afro-futurism is a term coined by Dery in 1993 and described
in 1990s by Nelson. It is a term of convenience to describe analysis, criticism, and cultural production which
directs the intersections of race and technology in Africa. Afro-futurism in films has existed since 1987 and
there are over 100 movies in total in the year of 2018. The majority of those films released internationally use English as the main
language of communication. However, there must be insertion of African language in those films .
This happens because in
Afro-futurism, African are predicted to use an international language, English, as their second or
so language, so code switching will be commonly found in Afro-futurism films. (p. 5). This means that
by studying language repertoires, the researchers can expand much wider scope of the utility of the language itself.
b. Afro-futurism in Black Panther Black Panther is an American superhero movie based on the Marvel comics characters that were
premiered on 2018. This film was distributed by Walt Disney Motion pictures and directed by Ryan Coogler. Basically, this movie is
the eighteenth film on the Marvel Motion Picture and the main stars are Chadwick Boseman as T’Challa/Black Panther, Michael B.
Jordan, and Lupita Nyong’o. Black Panther is set after the events of Captain America: Civil War, T’Challa comes back to his home as a
Afro-futurism
king of Wakanda, but he discovers his dominion by his enemy, including the global conflict as his consequences.
in this movie can be seen from the advanced technology made in one region in Africa and how
the people there can speak English. This is contradictory from the reality right now where
Africa is still a developing country and not all of their people are able to speak English . The
code-switching in this movie is marked by the ritual events of the Wakanda’s tribe and the
conversation among Wakanda’s people. 3. Language Repertoire Language repertoire is a set of language varieties
including all the registers, dialects, styles, and accents in a certain speech community to achieve a well-built communication both in
writing and speaking practices. Investigating the language repertoire can contribute a positive impact for the investigators. Laitin
(1992) argued that "examining language repertoires, rather than mother tongues, enables us to see the overlapping use of different
languages, by the same people, in different social contexts"
C. METHODOLOGY Document analysis is implemented in this research to gain deeper knowledge about factors affecting code-
switching in the Black Panther. According to Bowen and Glenn (2009) "document analysis is a systematic procedure for reviewing or
evaluating documents—both printed and electronic (computer-based and Internet-transmitted) material” (p. 27). In this research,
the document analysis relies on the electronic material which is the subtitle of the movie. This happens because the movie is
considered as a new movie, therefore the script is not available yet.
D. FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION 1. Code Switching in Black Panther and the Influence of Afrofuturism Kahiu, a Pumzi editor, exclaims
that Afro-futurism in films is not something new, but people do not expect a science fiction film out of Africa which combines
Afro-futurism was an answer from a critic that said
technology with culture (as cited in Womack, 2013).
African-American history which had been obscured by slavery and racism is in danger of
being written out of the future. There should be such a future envision that engages the
area of art, literature, and technology. The word 'combine' itself can be inferred as the
blending of two different communities. In the movie itself, the two distinct communities
that are being filmed are mostly African and American. The Black Panther’s alter ego
was T’Challa, a highly educated king of the mythical African kingdom named Wakanda.
It is a place which had never been colonized by foreign powers and was the most
technologically sophisticated country in the world (Staples, 2018). Because of this
reason, there are scenes that show how advanced and sophisticated technology that
African people have in Wakanda. Not only in the smart engines, armed-suites, and
robots, Afro-futurism in the Black Panther is also shown from its code switching. There
are several reasons regarded to Afro-futurism that influence code choice from the casts
of Black Panther. Below are some code switching taken from important scenes in Black
Panther along with the analysis.
Table 1. Analysis of Code-Switching in Black Panther and the Influence of Afro-futurism No Duration Code switching Speaker Sentences Translation Situation 1 3.11
- 3.31 EnglishXhosa Zuri : "They won't knock again." This conversation happens inside the N'Jobu apartment. In the apartement there are two guards, two
Wakanda people, and King T'Chaka. King T'Chaka visits his little brother, N'Jobu, to recheck if he helps Klaue to Guard : "Ungubani?" "Who are you?" Reason: The
guards want to make sure that Prince N'Jobu belongs to Wakanda, therefore they use Xhosa language. This means that code switching serves as an ethnic identity
maker among a larger group of people. Regarded to Afro-futurism, this code-switching in Black Panther happens because ethnicity possession is important as
Africans rule the advanced technology rather than other nations in the world. 2 3.31 - 3.38 EnglishXhosa Prince N'Jobu : "Prince N'Jobu, son of Azzuri." Guard :
"Ndibonise ukuba "Show me you are one of us.
Reason: Prince N'Jobu uses English in conversing with the guard, but the guard replies it in Xhosa language. This happens because the guard wants to ensure that
Prince N'Jobe is really one of the Wakanda people. This code switching is performed to reveal the truth whether Prince N'Jobu is a Wakanda. Regarded to Afro-
futurism, truth about ethnicity possession is vital because only Wakanda people can inherit the vibranium technology. 3 3.45 - 3.49 XhosaEnglish Prince N'Jobu :
"Wam kumkani." "My King." King T'Chaka : "Leave us." Reason: Prince N'Jobu uses Xhosa language in conversing with king T'Chaka in order to show his intimacy
with him. Yet, king T'Chaka replies in English to send Zuri away from the room. This happens because only Wakanda people can listen to what Prince N'Jobu and
the king is conversing. Regarded to Afro-futurism, this code switching is performed to keep the secrecy of Wakanda's advanced technology from other people. 4
5.06 - 5.12 EnglishXhosa Prince N'Jobu : "I did no such thing." King T'Chaka : "Ndixelele ukuba ungubangbani." "Tell him who you are." Reason: Prince N'jobu uses
English to deny what King T'chaka accuses him helping Klaue steal the vibranium. Therefore, king T'chaka uses Xhosa language to converse with Zuri, so that he
reveals his identity. Regarded to Afro-futurism, this utterances are expressed to uncover Zuri's identity which is him speaking Xhosa language in the American-
influenced place. 5 30.54 - 31.17 EnglishXhosa King T'Chaka / Dad : "Stand up. You are a king." Prince T'Challa is taking the heart-shaped herb after he is crowned to
be the next king of Wakanda. The herb enables him to meet his ancestors, especially his father in heaven. : "Yintoni engaluangaga, nyana?" "What is wrong, son?"
T'Challa : "Andikulungele, papa.” "I am not ready, papa." Reason: King T'chaka uses English to convince his son that he is a king now, so he refuses his son kneeling
down to him. Moreover, to show an intimacy between them, he shifts from English (addressed to a king) to Xhosa language (addressed to a son). Only because
Afro-futurism, the code switching can happen in the afterlife world where the heart-shaped herb is the thing that leads T’Challa there. In the afterlife world, his
father is in charge to sustain the legacy in Wakanda. 6 52.45 - 52.54 EnglishXhosa Klaue : "Oh, mercy, King! Mercy!" Klaue is finally arrested by the Black Panther
the King. T'Challa : "Every breath you take is mercy from me." T'Challa, and when he is trying to kill him with his claws, Klaue asks for his mercy. General Okoye also
asks him to stop what he is doing in that moment because many people surround the crime scene and chronicle it with their phones. General Okoye : "Hayi
kumkani, ilizwe likhangele." "Hey, King. The world is watching." Reason: King T'chaka uses English to accentuate his anger to Klaue, because Klaue is an American
and can only understand English. He wants to do a revenge for what Klaue has done towards the legacy of Wakanda. This code switching happens to distance the
relationship of both ethnicities, which are American and Wakanda, and show disapproval. Regarded to Afro-futurism, this can happen as a result of the advanced
technology which is shown from T'challa's Black Panther armed-suit which is equipped with the power of vibranium. Wakanda tribe does not want their legacy,
vibranium, is discovered by other nations, so they converse in Xhosa language. 7 40.54 - 41.25 EnglishKorean Nakkia to General Okoye : "Just whip it back and
forth." Nakkia, T'Challa, and General Okoye go to a casino in South Korea because Klaue promises someone to go there. They are dressed in fancy clothes to
disguise. Nakkia to Sophia : "소피아 아줌마! 얼굴 보니 좋으네요! " "Hello, Sophia. Nice to see you." : "나이로비에서 온 친구들이에요. 부자에요.
좋은분들이에 요. " "My friends from Kenya. Very wealthy. They're good." Reason: Nakkia switches from English to Korean because she has different interlocutors.
This code switching is performed because the conversation happens in South Korea, so there are different participants here. Nakkia introduces her two friends as
'the wealthy ones' in Korean language. Regarding to Afro-futurism, this code switching represents how wealthy and smart Wakanda people really are because they
can enter luxurious casino and converse fluently in various languages including Korean. 8 53.37 - 53.47 XhosaEnglish T'Challa to General Okoye : "Ndikhetha
ukuthetha noKlaue yedwa imizuzu emihlanu ukwenza ingxabano apha." "I prefer to talk to Klaue alone for 5 minutes to make a fuss here." Klaue is arrested in a
prison in America. Agent Ross, the American cop is in duty to keep his T'Challa to Agent Ross : "After your questioning, we willtake him back to Wakanda with us."
custody, Klaue. Nonetheless, T'Challa wants to take him to Wakanda so he can be judged by his people there. Reason: T'Challa speaks Xhosa to General Okoye, but
he speaks English to Agent Ross. This code switching is performed to keep certain secrecy of the message. T'Challa does sarcasm towards Agent Ross, but he speaks
it in Xhosa. However, when his interlocutor is Agent Ross, he goes back to English but with a whole different topic. Regarding to Afro-futurism, this code switching
is important to keep the secret plan of Black Panther without an American knowing it. 2. Language Repertoires In Black Panther, we can see that there are eight
examples of the use of language repertoire. In general, language repertoire is a set of language varieties including all the registers, dialects, styles, accents, etc. In a
certain speech community to achieve a wellbuilt communication both in writing or speaking practices. The researchers analyzed the language repertoire from
T’Challa’s point of view. The analysis was included the domains, language, setting, the addressee, and topic as illustrated in the following table. Table 2. Language
Repertoires from T’Challa’s Point of View Domains Language Setting Addressee Topic Between Father- Son Xhosa Afterlife world Family (T’Chaka) Greeting and
talking about the struggles to keep Wakanda safe. Between CIA agent and the King of Wakanda. English A Casino in Korea an old friend Who works for the CIA
(agent Ross) Greeting and arguing how to set up the enemy (klaue). Between the same Wakanda’ people. Xhosa A prison in the CIA building General Okoye. Talking
about how to take Klaue to Wakanda without being known by American. Between enemies English A cave in Wakanda. His enemy (Erick Killmonger) Talking about
the sunset in the Wakanda before he died. (Erick Killmonger) Between king and his soldiers Xhosa A waterfall in Wakanda Dora Milaje (Soldiers). Ordering the
soldiers to make a defense formation. Between friends English At the border His friend, W’kabi. Talking about a refugee program in Wakanda. Between king and
English At the kingdom of Wakanda The elders from the four tribes of Discussing about the crime that the elders Wakanda. Klaue has done towards the Wakanda’s
technology. Between King and the leader of Jabari English At the kingdom of Jabari M’baku, the leader of Jabari Showing the gratefulness and respect to M’baku
and asking for a favor. Based on the language repertoires above, it can be observed that T’Challa uses at least eight language repertoires. It depends on his
interlocutors, the circumstances, the messages, and the places where the conversation takes place. The researchers use T’Challa’s point of view because he is the
main character and his language repertoires represent all the languages which are used by every African-American in Black Panther. E. CONCLUSIONS From
the findings and discussions above, the researchers can figure out that the Afro-futurism can be one factor that affects code
switching in the movie that focuses on the African-American people culture with an advanced technology intervention. These
influences can be in the form of ethnic-possession which is considered important
because Africans rule the advanced technology rather than other nations in the world.
This is contradictory to the past history of African-Americans who used to be
colonialized by slavery and racism. The other final form is as a secrecy keeper among
the Wakanda because this tribe holds a sophisticated technology called vibranium
which cannot be spilled to other tribes outside Wakanda. Those are the two common
factors that affect code switching as a result of Afro-futurism in Black Panther. In
addition, from the language repertoires analysis from T’Challa’s point of view, the
researchers conclude that he uses it to convey meaning to other people from different
ethnicity, to converse with people who speak different languages, to utter dialogue with
other people who have different dialects. The researchers also have some suggestions for both readers and
researchers. The readers are expected to have watched the Black Panther beforehand to understand better about the content of
this research. Then for the researchers, they are expected to have read similar research and understood the translation of foreign
languages which are used in the code switching in this research.

Afrofuturism can expand as a movement toward emancipation through the

bending of reality that movies and art engage in – the CP is an instance of this
Strong and Chaplin 19(Myron T. Strong is an Assistant Professor of Sociology at the Community College of Baltimore
County, K. Sean Chaplin, Ph.D. is a joint-appointed Provost Postdoctoral Fellow in the Department of Sociology & Criminology;
Exercise Science, Physical Science & Sports Studies at John Carroll University, University Heights), “Afrofuturism and Black Panther”,
May 1st, 2019

Afrofuturism has long used technoculture and science fiction as a lens for
understanding the Black experience. Expressed through art, music, philosophy and
various forms of media, it explores the Black experience across the African Diaspora. It
places the imagination at the core by providing an alternate narrative for understanding Black
experiences, often by chronicling stories of alien abductions, time travel, and futuristic
societies. Afrofuturism is expressed in the music of artists like Sun Ra and Janelle Monáe and books like Octavia
Butler’s Kindred, which uses time travel to explore how the institution of slavery and its
intersections of race, gender, and relationships shape both present and future societies.
The stars of Black Panther at a 2017 San Diego ComiCon panel. Gage Skidmore, Flickr CC Like science fiction, Afrofuturism
often asks questions like “Who defines what is human?” and “Who decides which
groups have rights?” The world of “what is” can be supplanted by the world of “what
ifs.” The worlds imagined in this cultural form go beyond simple science fiction stories created by Blacks; these stories, art,
and philosophies center Black Diasporic life and allow for a way of viewing Black
culture in a fantastical, creative, and hopeful manner. Afrofuturism triumphed in mainstream American
theater with the enormous success of the film Black Panther. When it opened on February 16, 2018, Black people all
around the country embraced it fully—perhaps most visibly and pointedly as, on red carpets and in
long lines at theaters, they donned fur coats, dashikis, crowns, lion sashes, and outfits
inspired by precolonial African kingdoms. Many adorned their faces and bodies with African tribal designs. This
joyful expression of pride was not only from watching a nearly all Black cast in a major movie, but also a collective exhale.

Science fiction and media more generally have systematically neglected and narrowed
Blackness; Black Panther was an undeniable expansion of Blackness. The outpouring also
illustrated what Signithia Fordham and John Ogbu have described as a “fictive kinship” between African Americans, formed not by

DNA but by shared experience. (Of course, as Alondra Nelson explains in The Social Life of DNA, DNA is important and through the

mapping of the human genome, it has allowed many Blacks to establish ties to African ancestral homelands.) Black Panther
centers on the ascension of Prince T’Challa to the Wakandan throne. He becomes King
and spiritual leader of the most technologically advanced country in the world —the
only country in Africa untouched by European colonization. It’s a world made possible by a mountain
of Vibranium (the hardest material in the universe) flying through space and colliding with Africa thousands of years ago. The

cataclysm altered Wakanda’s environment and created a fusion of plant life that was both Earth and alien. This story’s alien
and otherworldly emphasis gives it an Afrofuturistic perspective and acts as a vine
that threads the past, present, and future throughout. The heart-shaped flower created by the fusion is
given to a warrior shaman by goddess Bast (in the form of a Black Panther) and granted the original Black Panther the strength to

end conflict between the five warring tribes in Wakanda. As we enter the story , Vibranium runs every aspect of
life in Wakanda and is the vehicle that will drive future liberation. The film’s ability to
imagine a futuristic and alternative uncolonized Africa provides audiences with positive
portrayals of Africa beyond stereotypes of civil warfare and violence, disease, famine,
and other social ills. It also left Black moviegoers feeling a sense of pride and connection to a Pan-African identity.
According to W.E.B. Du Bois, this PanAfrican identity connects Black Americans to Africans
through shared racial struggles and resistance to colonization. Afrofuturism projects
often bend time and space, merging both ancestral history and future possibi lity with
the spiritual in ways we also see in Black Panther. This theme is most evident in the film in T’Challa visiting
his dead father on the ancestral plane. Their unbreakable chain of kinship emphasizes the knowledge of one’s past. This
resonated with Black people who were disconnected from family lineages due to the
Transatlantic Slave Trade, which made and remade kinship patterns within the
institution of slavery. And so it is powerful when T’Challa takes the purple flower elixir and enters the ancestral plane.
Dressed in white, he stares at the purple sky and enchanting trees, the plane populated by Black panthers who are ancestors and

past leaders of Wakanda. When T’Challa bows to his father, his father tells T’Challa, “Stand up; you are the king now.” T’Challa is

assured that he can assume this role. Yet, the theme of the ancestral plane also highlights the
schisms and inequality of the African Diaspora when the main antagonist, Erik Stevens
(Killmonger), a young Black American soldier, defeats T’Challa and takes over the mantle
of Black Panther. For Killmonger, the plane is a small apartment in Oakland where he meets his father N’Jobu. In response to
Killmonger’s desire to see Wakanda, his father says, “I fear that you may not be welcomed.” Puzzled young Killmonger asks, “Why?”

With tears in his eyes N’Jobu claims, “They will say that you are lost.” This scene sets up a powerful statement about the desire and

yearning of Blacks like Marcus Garvey to connect to Africa, establishing a unified ancestral plane, but also the insecurity of not

knowing how they will be received. These wills of imagination are affected by colonization and illustrated by the dichotomy between

T’Challa and Killmonger. Each is focused on continuing his father’s legacy, one rooted in the past, the other in the present. Both are

reliant on the future. T’Challa clings to an isolationalist policy, while Killmonger wishes Wakanda would use its
technology to arm Black peoples to fight colonization and its postcolonial effects
globally. This presents an old but not easily answered ethical question often posed in scifi: “Should technology or
ideology lead to human evolution?” In his struggle, Killmonger emerges as a hero to
many Blacks who can identify with his pursuit of the true villains: colonization and
racism. Throughout, he is characterized by his roots in American institutions (e.g., the CIA and military academies). The violence
Killmonger ultimately undertakes is carefully framed within a long history of oppression, military training, and racial socialization. A

San Diego ComiCon attendee in Okoye cosplay. Gage Skidmore, Flickr CC T’Challa is also guided by the Divine Feminine, another

common theme in Afrofuturism . The movie weaves a picture of powerful women decoupled from
European ideas, significant and celebrated, past, present, and future. They are free-thinking and
agentic. From Nikita, who leaves T’Challa to free oppressed people in Nigeria, to General Okoye, head of the Dora Milage and

considered the most powerful warrior in Wakanada, who threatens to kill her partner if he doesn’t yield to Wakanda, these women’s

decisions are their own. These powerful images reject many of the negative tropes of Black
femininity elaborated by scholars like Patricia Hill Collins and Melissa Harris-Perry and
too often associated with Africa and patriarchal religious traditions . The egalitarian
nature of the relationships between men and women in Black Panther are, instead,
portrayed as seamless and natural. Women choose the paths and guide the society. Specifically, the all-female
warrior army sworn to protect the King of Wakanda, the Dora Milage with the shaved and tattooed heads is a celebration women’s

power. These images reflect aspects of historical reality that is often suppressed or ignored. It strongly pulls from aspects of

precolonial Africa, including the Kingdom of Dahomey (modern day Benin), which had fearsome female warriors alongside powerful

kings. Ultimately, Black Panther’s imagination fuels its Afrofuturistic vision. It dares to embrace the idea that, like Sankofa, learning

from the past may be the best way to live in the present and change for the future. And fueled by Afrofuturism, its
presents a world that both asks us to remember and acknowledge Africa as our root
and understand social forces, like colonization, that have limited social progress. All the
while, Black Panther never lets the viewer forget that imagination gives us agency: if we can dream it, we can change it.
 Solvency-Fabulation
Black performativity requires the mobilization and reformation of history to
create a dialectic that allows for polytemporality. We advocate for a suspension
of the past in favor of a fabulative disjunction. Nyong’o 18
Tavia Nyong’o, American cultural critic, historian and performance studies scholar. He is currently a Professor of American Studies at
Yale University where he teaches courses on black diaspora performance, cultural studies, social and critical theory, “Afro-
Fabulations: The Queer Drama Of Black Life,” contact me for pdf//nrt
What does it mean for black performance theory to take the body as its
object at a time when the life of the body can no longer be taken as a
simple given, when life itself is increasingly in question? This chapter and
the next will begin to pursue this question in light of what has come before.
What is this “life” that live arts take as their medium? If the blackness of
black performance introduces a caesura between life and the body that
would bear it as its sign, might black performance then be said to inhere in
a capacity of life to exceed the presence of the body, to distribute itself
along pathways that circumvent the aporetics of loss, and to evade the
norms of life? In both this chapter and the following, I will have occasion to
revisit a question of collective memory that points in at least two
directions: backward, toward turn-of-the twentieth century vitalism and its
antagonistic sequels, négritude and Fanonism, and forward into the post-
millennial anxieties that circulate around post-humanism, artificial
intelligence, and the digital. Between these two historical blocs lie crucial
decades of decolonization and of the international black freedom struggle,
movements that delivered a shock to the global system of capitalism and
white supremacy that is still reverberating. The model of collective
memory I employ is one in which recollection gathers up the past with its
present in disjunctive synthesis. By “disjunctive,” I mean the fabulative
process by which any act of recollection branches off in all directions,
foiling any effort to cohere the narrative of the past into a single, stable,
and linear story. I will be interested in showing how, in the process of
recollecting the story of the past, we repeatedly lose the plot. Such a
disjunctive synthesis of past and present, so frequently thematized through
the game of loss and salvation, undermines our ability to take the “life” in
live performance as a given. Even, or especially, in the present, we are in
recollection, at least potentially. There is no other place, after all, for a
memory to crystalize than inside the suspended flow of the present. The
crystal images of memory, as I shall have occasion to call them in this
chapter, can be said to embark on a discontinuous trajectory of growth that
may spring forth from within a single subject, but whose eventual form is
necessarily multiple. Three theoretical tendencies offer tools for shifting
our thinking of collective memory into what we can perhaps call the
singular plural.1 The first tendency is the ecological and new materialist
thinking that extends agency beyond the human into profuse networks
and assemblages, dispersed across living and nonliving things.2 The
second is the cognitive and neurobiological tendency to double and divide
from within the living body, through a process of scientific reduction I have
been linking with the photographic apparatus.3 And the third tendency is
the evolutionary and speculative thought that displaces life from the finite
body to much vaster horizons and deeper archaeologies of time.4 These
three tendencies rarely work together seamlessly, and indeed are often at
cross-purposes with each other. Certainly, my project is not to reconcile
them so much as it is to strategically mobilize each where it disrupts the
identity between the body and the life upon which ideals of self-
sovereignty and possessive individualism rest. These new materialist
developments in contemporary theory present both hazards and
opportunities for a radicalized articulation of black performance, as a range
of scholars, including Katherine McKittrick, Kara Keeling, Alexander
Weheliye, C. Riley Snorton, Sylvia Wynter, Jayna Brown, and Zakkiyah
Jackson have all argued.5 The temporalities and durations opened out by
this work underscore Jared Sexton’s shrewd observation that “black life is
not lived in the world that the world lives in, but it is lived underground, in
outer space.”6 This negation of the world, this refusal to countenance the
“salvific wish” (to borrow a useful formulation from Candice Jenkins)
through which proper deportment can somehow redeem the debasement
of the race by anti-blackness, opens out the dialectic of loss and salvation,
or search and rescue, through which the disjunctive synthesis of memory is
bound to operate.7 Here I second Jayna Brown’s claim that black people,
“while excluded from the human, have an expanded capacity for life, in fact
have always had access to worlds freed of the regulatory terms of
humanness.”8 By shifting the frame in this section away from life and death
to loss and recovery, I mean to seek the “expanded capacity for life” Brown
detects in the precise location that, in Sexton’s formula, can remain only a
site of subtraction (“not lived in the world . . .”). I will ultimately be arguing
for a black studies that pulls away from the decisionism and false binarism
of life or death, pessimism or optimism, and that instead seeks its
disjunctive synthesis, if disjunctive synthesis there must be, in the realm of
a distributed, inorganic concept of memory. The concept of black memory
or recollection I look to in this chapter, through the work of Kara Walker
and Regina José Galindo, is inextricable from the history of racial capitalism.
I do not look to speculative genres in this section of this book because I
imagine finding therein a space of escape from the catastrophe that has
already happened to the dispossessed. To the contrary, it will be my
argument that we speculate because we were objects of speculation:
bought and sold, killed and quartered, collateralized and securitized, used,
impregnated, aborted, discarded. Bodies that were speculated in became
speculative bodies. The object that shrieks became the subject who speaks,
but her tongue is not for words or discourse so much as it is a tongue of
fire, an “outside art” as we hear in the poem of that title by Harryette
Mullen: A humble monumental- music made of syllables - or a heartbroken
crystal - cathedral with gleaming walls- of Orangina bottles9 A simple paean
to black funerary ritual (and an answer song to Wallace Stevens’s
repellently titled “Like Decorations in a N____r Cemetery”), “Outside Art”
looks to the vernacular graveyard for another idea of order within
disorder, another ordering action conducted upon the (heart)broken
shards of the commodity object, whose sharp angles are built back up into
the windows and roofs of this memory palace, an aesthetic miniature not
much larger than the poem itself, within which the souls of the
transmigrated might indefinitely echo.10 If I turn in this chapter to an
exercise in monumentalism that appears anything but “humble,” at least at
first glance, I want to hold on to the ars poetica of Mullen’s poem insofar as
it contains, within its five short lines, what Deleuze calls a “hyalosign, or
“crystal image.”11 A crystal image for Deleuze is a time-image that grows
like a crystal, with each new facet holding another little shard of perception
in its “reflecting surface. Each new facet (in Deleuze, a cinematic image;
here, a word or word picture) is a lure: none represents the full or final
“truth” of the poem (or the person to whom the grave is in memoriam).
My description of crystal images in this chapter comes as a response to
Saidiya Hartman’s response to the archival record of the Middle Passage,
saying that “the archive is, in this case, a death sentence, a tomb.”12 The
tomb, or crypt out from which the crystal image blooms, I argue, can be
reckoned through a Bergsonian sense of duration. The art work of memory
is a time-based performance; it is art that takes (its) time. It is within this
time, in this duration, that Deleuze follows Bergson in sensing a promise of
freedom that the crystal image is perpetually returning to us in the shards
it has taken in from the virtual past. This promise of freedom is important,
and so is the fact that it is only a promise. Time in itself isn’t free, nor is it
freeing. Rather, our sense of freedom arises only within and through time.
If every object has a story, this is because every object takes up some
amount of time. Deleuze says that every object synthesizes time, in direct
analogy to the way a plant synthesizes light. And just as each plant takes
up a certain quantum of light for its own purpose and produces its own
singular disjunctive pattern of branch and leaf, so every object contracts
and dilates time. In this sense, polytemporality is not the product of
cultural relativism, not a human overlay upon natural phenomena, but the
way things are in the world. The process by which we discover how this
takes place, I argue, leads us to an “anarchaeology” of objects in the
world of black performance.
 Solvency – Wakanda WMDs
Wakanda has WMDs capable of destroying cities
Shreedhar 18 (Shreedhar, Just curious! “Does Wakanda have Nuclear Weapons? (or any
weapons of mass destruction with similar capabilities?),” [Science Fiction & Fantasy Stack
Exchange], May 12th of 2018, accessed: 6/23/19,
https://scifi.stackexchange.com/questions/187574/does-wakanda-have-nuclear-weapons-or-
any-weapons-of-mass-destruction-with-simi)//DCai

Although the movie Black Panther (2018) did not present any hints if (or not) the Wakandan
nation possesses any WMDs (Weapons of Mass destruction, nuclear or otherwise), in the three-volume series by
Christopher Priest, there have been at least two WMDs presented. Firstly, the N'Yami class Battle Cruise
ships. Named in honor of T'Challa's mother (and King T'Chaka's first wife), these battle ships are enormous and
have WMDs capable of destroying entire cities. The second set of machinery that the
Wakandans possess capable of inflicting great damage are the Panther mech suits (or well-known as
the Giant Panther Prowlers). The prowlers were first introduced in Black Panther Vol. 3 Issue 10 through 12. Achebe (a resident of an
African country of Ghudaza) was driven insane after his wife was killed and he was left for dead. At one time, he gained access to the
Gaint Prowler robots and sent them to attack Wakanda. His plan was however foiled in time by T'Challa. These
Prowlers are
near-indestructible machines and were sometimes also referred to as Doomsday bots. So, in
conclusion, Wakanda does have WMDs. But I don't recall the Black Panther actually using them (to destroy cities etc.).
AFF
2AC
 Perm
Policy centered scenario planning and analysis is key to this sabotage that
Afrofuturism engages in
Barma et al. 16 (Naazneen Barma, PhD in Political Science from UC-Berkeley, Assistant Professor of National Security
Affairs at the Naval Postgraduate School, Brent Durbin, PhD in Political Science from UC-Berkeley, Professor of Government at Smith
College, Eric Lorber, JD from UPenn and PhD in Political Science from Duke, Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher, Rachel Whitlark, PhD in
Political Science from GWU, Post-Doctoral Research Fellow with the Project on Managing the Atom and International Security
Program within the Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs at Harvard, May 2016. “‘Imagine a World in Which’: Using
Scenarios in Political Science,” International Studies Perspectives 17 (2), pp. 1-19,
http://www.naazneenbarma.com/uploads/2/9/6/9/29695681/using_scenarios_in_political_science_isp_2015.pdf)

Yet enhancing communication between scholars and policymakers is only one

component of bridging the gap between international affairs theory and practice.
Another crucial component of this bridge is the generation of substantive research
programs that are actually policy relevant—a challenge to which less concerted at-
tention has been paid. The dual challenges of bridging the gap are especially acute for graduate students, a particular
irony since many enter the discipline with the ex- plicit hope of informing policy. In a field that has an admirable devotion to peda-
strikingly little attention is paid to techniques for generating policy-
gogical self-reflection,
relevant ideas for dissertation and other research topics. Although numerous articles
and conference workshops are devoted to the importance of experiential and problem-
based learning, especially through techniques of simulation that emu- late policymaking
processes (Loggins 2009; Butcher 2012; Glasgow 2012; Rothman 2012; DiCicco 2014), little has been written about the use of
such techniques for generating and developing innovative research ideas. This article outlines an experiential and problem-
based approach to developing a political science research program using scenario
analysis. It focuses especially on illuminating the research generation and pedagogical benefits of this tech- nique by describing
the use of scenarios in the annual New Era Foreign Policy Conference (NEFPC), which brings together doctoral students of
international and comparative affairs who share a demonstrated interest in policy-relevant scholarship.3 In the introductory section,
the article outlines the practice of sce- nario analysis and considers the utility of the technique in political science. We ar- gue that
scenario analysis should be viewed as a tool to stimulate problem-based learning for
doctoral students and discuss the broader scholarly benefits of using scenarios to help
generate research ideas. The second section details the manner in which NEFPC deploys scenario analysis. The third
section reflects upon some of the concrete scholarly benefits that have been realized from the scenario for- mat. The fourth section
offers insights on the pedagogical potential associated with using scenarios in the classroom across levels of study. A brief conclusion
re- flects on the importance of developing specific techniques to aid those who wish to generate political science scholarship of
relevance to the policy world. What Are Scenarios and Why Use Them in Political Science? Scenario analysis is perceived
most commonly as a technique for examining the robustness of strategy. It can immerse decision makers in
future states that go be- yond conventional extrapolations of current trends, preparing them to take ad- vantage of unexpected
The global petroleum company Shell,
opportunities and to protect themselves from adverse exogenous shocks.
a pioneer of the technique, characterizes scenario analysis as the art of considering
“what if” ques- tions about possible future worlds. Scenario analysis is thus typically seen as serv- ing the
purposes of corporate planning or as a policy tool to be used in combination with simulations of decision making. Yet scenario
analysis is not in- herently limited to these uses. This section provides a brief overview of the prac- tice of scenario analysis and the
makes a case for the utility of the technique for political
motivations underpinning its uses. It then
science scholarship and de- scribes how the scenarios deployed at NEFPC were created. The Art of Scenario
Analysis We characterize scenario analysis as the art of juxtaposing current trends in unex-
pected combinations in order to articulate surprising and yet plausible futures, of- ten
referred to as “alternative worlds.” Scenarios are thus explicitly not forecasts or projections based on linear extrapolations of
Nor should they be equated with
contemporary patterns, and they are not hypothesis-based expert predictions.
sim- ulations, which are best characterized as functional representations of real
institu- tions or decision-making processes (Asal 2005). Instead, they are depictions of
possible future states of the world, offered together with a narrative of the driving
causal forces and potential exogenous shocks that could lead to those futures . Good
scenarios thus rely on explicit causal propositions that, independent of one another, are plausible—yet, when
combined, suggest surprising and sometimes controversial future worlds. For example, few
predicted the dramatic fall in oil prices toward the end of 2014. Yet independent driving forces, such as the shale gas revolution in
the United States, China’s slowing economic growth, and declin- ing conflict in major Middle Eastern oil producers such as Libya,
were all recog- nized secular trends that—combined with OPEC’s decision not to take concerted action as prices began to decline—
came together in an unexpected way. While scenario analysis played a role in war gaming and strategic planning dur- ing the Cold
War, the real antecedents of the contemporary practice are found in corporate futures
studies of the late 1960s and early 1970s (Raskin et al. 2005). Scenario analysis was essentially initiated at Royal Dutch Shell in
1965, with the re- alization that the usual forecasting techniques and models were not capturing the rapidly changing environment
in which the company operated (Wack 1985; Schwartz 1991). In particular, it had become evident that straight-line extrapola- tions
of past global trends were inadequate for anticipating the evolving business environment. Shell-style scenario
planning “helped break the habit, ingrained in most corporate planning, of assuming
that the future will look much like the pre- sent” (Wilkinson and Kupers 2013, 4). Using scenario
thinking, Shell anticipated the possibility of two Arab-induced oil shocks in the 1970s
and hence was able to position itself for major disruptions in the global petroleum sector. Building on its corporate roots,
scenario analysis has become a standard policy- making tool. For example, the Project on
Forward Engagement advocates linking systematic foresight, which it defines as the disciplined
analysis of alternative fu- tures, to planning and feedback loops to better equip the United States to meet
contemporary governance challenges (Fuerth 2011). Another prominent applica- tion of
scenario thinking is found in the National Intelligence Council’s series of Global Trends
reports, issued every four years to aid policymakers in anticipating and planning for future challenges. These reports present a
handful of “alterna- tive worlds” approximately twenty years into the future, carefully constructed on the basis of emerging global
trends, risks, and opportunities, and intended to stimulate thinking about geopolitical change and its effects.4 As with corporate
the technique can be used in foreign policymaking for long-range general
scenario analysis,
planning purposes as well as for anticipating and coping with more narrow and
immediate challenges. An example of the latter is the German Marshall Fund’s EuroFutures project, which uses four
scenarios to map the poten- tial consequences of the Euro-area financial crisis (German Marshall Fund 2013). Several features make
scenario analysis particularly useful for policymaking.5 Long-term global trends across a number of different realms—social,
technologi- cal, environmental, economic, and political—combine in often-unexpected ways to produce unforeseen challenges. Yet
the ability of decision makers to imagine, let alone prepare for, discontinuities in the policy realm is constrained by their existing
mental models and maps. This limitation is exacerbated by well-known cognitive bias tendencies such as groupthink and
confirmation bias (Jervis 1976; Janis 1982; Tetlock 2005). The power of scenarios lies in their ability to help indi- viduals break out of
conventional modes of thinking and analysis by introducing unusual combinations of trends and deliberate discontinuities in
Imagining alternative future worlds through a structured analytical
narratives about the future.
process enables policymakers to envision and thereby adapt to something alto- gether
different from the known present.
Intervening in the actions of militaristic war-machines, like the USA, is a better
alternative than complete disassociation with them
Bryant 12 (Levi Bryant, professor of Philosophy at Collin College and Chair of the Critical Philosophy program at the New
Centre for Research and Practice, September 15, 2012. “War Machines and Military Logistics: Some Cards on the Table,”
https://larvalsubjects.wordpress.com/2012/09/15/war-machines-and-military-logistics-some-cards-on-the-table/)

Let’s take Alexander Galloway’s political aims. I presume that he thinks there are many things wrong with our social world and that
if we
he wants to change them. This is a view I share. Indeed, I share just about all his political commitments. Now I ask Alex this:
want to change the social world, don’t we need to know how it’s put together, how it
functions, and what causes societies to persist in their oppressive structure ? These are all
questions of social ontology: what is a society? What causes social relations to persist or endure in
the way they do? What types of beings compose a society? Is it just people? Are
institutions real beings? Are nonhumans like natural resources, technologies, and
infrastructure causal factors? Or is it only ideologies that lead people to live under such
intolerable conditions? We need answers to these questions to intervene effectively. We can call them questions of
“military logistics”. We are, after all, constructing war machines to combat these intolerable
conditions. Military logistics asks two questions: first, it asks what things the opposing force,
the opposing war machine captured by the state apparatus, relies on in order to deploy
its war machine: supply lines, communications networks, people willing to fight, propaganda or ideology, people believing in
the cause, etc. Military logistics maps all of these things. Second, military logistics asks how to best deploy
its own resources in fighting that state war machine. In what way should we deploy our
war machine to defeat war machines like racism, sexism, capitalism, neoliberalism,
etc? What are the things upon which these state based war machines are based, what are the privileged nodes within these state
based war machines that allows them to function? These nodes are the things upon which we want our nomadic war machines to
intervene. If we are to be effective in producing change we better know what the supply
lines are so that we might make them our target. What I’ve heard in these discussions is a complete
indifference to military logistics. It’s as if people like to wave their hands and say “this is horrible
and unjust!” and believe that hand waving is a politically efficacious act. Yeah, you’re right, it is
horrible but saying so doesn’t go very far and changing it. It’s also as if people are horrified
when anyone discusses anything besides how horribly unjust everything is. Confronted
with an analysis why the social functions in the horrible way, the next response is to say
“you’re justifying that system and saying it’s a-okay!” This misses the point that the
entire point is to map the “supply lines” of the opposing war machine so you can
strategically intervene in them to destroy them and create alternative forms of life . You
see, we already took for granted your analysis of how horrible things are. You’re preaching to the choir. We wanted to get to work
determining how to change that and believed for that we needed good maps of the opposing state based war machine so we can
decide how to intervene. We then look at your actual practices and see that your sole strategy seems to be ideological critique or
debunking. Your idea seems to be that if you just prove that other people’s beliefs are incoherent, they’ll change and things will be
there have been a number of bang-on
different. But we’ve noticed a couple things about your strategy: 1)
critiques of state based war machines, without things changing too much, and 2)
we’ve noticed that we might even persuade others that labor under these ideologies
that their position is incoherent, yet they still adhere to it as if the grounds of their
ideology didn’t matter much. This leads us to suspect that there are othercausal factors that
undergird these social assemblages and cause them to endure is they do. We thought to
ourselves, there are two reasons that an ideological critique can be successful and still fail
to produce change: a) the problem can be one of “distribution”. The critique is right but fails to reach
the people who need to hear it and even if they did receive the message they couldn’t
receive it because it’s expressed in the foreign language of “academese” which they’ve never
been substantially exposed to (academics seem to enjoy only speaking to other academics even as they say their aim is to change
there are other causal factors involved in why social worlds take the form
the world). Or b)
they do that are not of the discursive, propositional, or semiotic order. My view is that it is a
combination of both. I don’t deny that ideology is one component of why societies take the form they do and why people tolerate
intolerable conditions. I merely deny that this is the only causal factor. I don’t reject your political aims, but
merely wonder how to get there. Meanwhile, you guys behave like a war machine that
believes it’s sufficient to drop pamphlets out of an airplane debunking the ideological
reasons that persuade the opposing force’s soldiers to fight this war on behalf of the
state apparatus, forgetting supply lines, that there are other soldiers behind them with
guns to their back, that they have obligations to their fellows, that they have families to
feed or debt to pay off, etc. When I point out these other things it’s not to reject your political aims, but to say that
perhaps these are also good things to intervene in if we wish to change the world. In other
words, I’m objecting to your tendency to use a hammer to solve all problems and to see all things as a nail (discursive problems),
ignoring the role that material nonhuman entities play in the form that social assemblages take. This
is the basic idea
behind what I’ve called “terraism”. Terraism has three components: 1) “Cartography” or the
mapping of assemblages to understand why they take the form they take and why
they endure. This includes the mapping of both semiotic and material components of social
assemblages. 2) “Deconstruction” Deconstruction is a practice. It includes both traditional modes of
discursive deconstruction (Derridean deconstruction, post-structuralist feminist critique, Foucaultian genealogy, Cultural Marxist
critique, etc), but also far
more literal deconstruction in the sense of intervening in material or
thingly orders upon which social assemblages are reliant. It is not simply beliefs, signs, and ideologies
that cause oppressive social orders to endure or persist, but also material arrangements upon which people depend to live as they
changing a social order thus necessarily involves intervening in those material
do. Part of
networks to undermine their ability to maintain their relations or feedback mechanisms
that allow them to perpetuate certain dependencies for people. Finally, 3) there is
“Terraformation”. Terraformation is the hardest thing of all, as it requires the activist to be
something more than a critic, something more than someone who simply denounces
how bad things are, someone more than someone who simply sneers, producing instead other material
and semiotic arrangements rendering new forms of life and social relation possible.
Terraformation consists in building alternative forms of life. None of this, however, is possible
without good mapping of the terrain so as to know what to deconstruct and what resources are available for building new worlds.
Sure, I care about ontology for political reasons because I believe this world sucks and is profoundly unjust. But rather than waving
my hands and cursing because of how unjust and horrible it is so as to feel superior to all those about me who don’t agree, rather
than playing the part of the beautiful soul who refuses to get his hands dirty, I think we need good maps so we can blow up the right
bridges, power lines, and communications networks, and so we can engage in effective terraformation.