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Afrofuturism and the Law
Bennett Capers*
Abstract
Long before the film Black Panther captured the public's imagination, the cultural critic Mark
Dery coined the term Afrofuturism to describe speculative fiction that treats African-
American themes and addresses African-American concerns in the context of twentieth-
century technoculture. Since then, the term has been applied to speculative creatives as
diverse as the pop artist Janelle Monae, the science fiction writer Octavia Bufler, and the
visual artist Nick Cave. But only recently have thinkers turned to how Afrofuturism might
guide, and shape, law. This special issue, Afrofuturism and the Law, features articles that
explore the many ways Afrofuturism can inform a range of legal issues, and even chart the
way to a better future for us all.
What good is [science fiction] to Black people? What good is science fiction's
thinking about the present, the future, and the past? What good is its tendency
to warn or to consider alternative ways of thinking and doing?
Octavia Bufler1
Science fiction isn't just thinking about the world out there. It's also thinking
about how that world might be-a particularly important exercise for those who
are oppressed, because if they're going to change the world we live in, they-and
all of us-have to be able to think about a world that works differenfly.
Samuel R. Delany2
In 2018, I dragged my husband with me to our local multiplex to see Black Panther. Dragged,
because superhero movies do nothing for him. Or less than nothing. He finds the notion
of someone being able to fly, shoot webs from their wrists, or turn into a giant green hulk
when they get angry just too absurd.
With Black Panther, though, I wasn't going to let him off so easy. Months and
months before it even came out, I saw an early trailer on YouTube, and heard Kendrick
Lamar's beat. Then the voiceover began. I have seen gods fy. I've seen men build weapons that I
couldn't even imagine. I've seen aliens drop from the sky. But I have never seen anything like this! I held
my breath as Chadwick Boseman's Black Panther hurled himself through the air and landed
effortlessly, panther-like, on a speeding car. Then I saw the images of Wakanda, his African
* Professor of Law and Director of the Center on Race, Law, and Justice, Fordham University School of Law
(capers(Tlaw.fordham.edu). Copyright © 2021 by I. Bennett Capers.
1 Octavia E. Butler, Positive Obsession, in Bloodchild and Other Stories 123, 134-35 (1995).
2 Rachel Kaadzi Ghansah, Samuel R. Delany, The Art of Fiction No. 210, 197 Paris Rev. 25 (2011)
(https: / /www.theparisreview.org/interviews /6088/samuel-r-delanv-the-art-of-fiction-no-210-samuel-r-
delany) (providing a transcript of and commentary on Ghansah's interview with Delany).
ISSN 2291-9732](ViewImageLocal?handle=hein.journals/cclaysolw9&div=1&collection=&method=preview&ext=.png&size=3)
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