The Human Project

Figuring Black Dystopias The dystopian landscape of many black lives offers a template for apocalyptic parables of a global scope. Racialized subjects, black and brown people, serve absolutely pivotal functions in a startling number of science fiction narratives, and particularly within post-apocalyptic worlds. Black characters determine the crucial meaning and messages of many of these narratives as they bear the weight of the apocalypse. Black women in science fiction are often particularly gifted with prophetic vision, such as with the alien visionary Guinan in the television show Star Trek: The Next Generation and the Oracle figure in the Matrix trilogy.