Imagining a Black Future Digital Revolution through the #Afrofuturism hashtag

• In Event: Black Digital Humanities: Technology and the Information Age along the Color Line

Abstract

The Future as Present…Historically, Blacks and those of the African diaspora have always been forward thinkers. From the Egyptian hieroglyphics, to musical artists taking us on the ‘mothership’ experience, to writers creating futuristic shape-shifters and literary bridges from Africa to America to space. Defined by the literary and cultural aesthetic Afrofuturism and its corresponding hashtag, #Afrofuturism evolved as a way to continue imagining what the African diasporic future might look like through the worlds of art, film, literature, music and beyond through the arena of social media.

#Afrofuturism becomes a revolutionized version of the future that serves as digital forum to express personal and cultural identities, a sense of empowerment and belonging, and a safe space to interrogate and build new truths regarding those of the African diaspora, which have been outside the dominant narrative. This paper seeks to discuss various uses of #Afrofuturism and how it functions as a digital storytelling tool that allows Black users, a space for social, cultural, and political empowerment in and outside the social media network.

We may joke about ‘Black Twitter,’ but the reality is that these global networks and the emerging hashtags produce a new Black identity consciousness and a safe space. Visions of the future are largely concerned with science and technology oftentimes excluding Black bodies, however social media and the hashtag becomes a place where they get re-inserted back into the discussion. The revolution will not be televised, but dressed in a #Afrofuturism hashtag!

Author

• Grace Gipson, University of California, Berkeley