“We Gon' Be Alright!”

 As I conclude my time in this utterly amazing course instructed by the legendary Tananarive Due, I am forced into a position of reflecting on which lessons of Afrofuturism were the most impactful to me. It is difficult to pinpoint just one, and even harder to think about a single material we covered that encapsulates everything that I am feeling. What I do know after having the platform to create my own work of Afrofuturism through a short story for my final project for this course, the words rapped by Kendrick Lamar in his song “Alright” have inspired me to create and have given me the confidence to keep going. While facing many the many struggles and trauma I share with every American through the covid pandemic, to grieving the countless murders of innocent Black lives at the hands of our country's brutal, racist police force and deluded white supremacists acting upon their fears of becoming “replaced” by the racialized groups they deem to be inferior. We are tired. And just when that wasn't enough life always seems to have its own vendetta to kick you when you are down, throwing things in your face to manage personally while you navigate through bigger, socially constructed letdowns. 

My mother was diagnosed with breast cancer during week two of the spring quarter. As an anxious child who fought her obsessive, intrusive thoughts with prayers to God that became a ritual to keep my family and me “healthy, happy, and strong" — hypochondria practically raised me. Hearing the news from 200 miles away, on top of battling my own fears of getting Covid as cases rose once again, on top of fearing I’d contract any other illness under the sun was truly debilitating, to say the least.  It was worse thinking my own mental struggles and health fears could have possibly manifested this, but I’ve worked hard enough throughout my life to know my thoughts can’t rule my life and never have. This wasn’t about me. I was going to be alright and I needed to show up to make sure she knew she would be alright.

The act of putting on a brave face and moving forward no matter what we are thrown is something I believe Kendrick’s “Alright” encapsulates. Afrofuturism as a whole to me is a demonstration of harnessing Blackness as a power that influences our adaptability to change, our ability to cope, our ability to adapt, and our strong sense of community to pick us up when we are down. Afrofuturism is moving forward, together, and resisting the issues we face collectively, generationally, and relentlessly that have only given us the exclusive rights to tools that effectively manage the unique personal challenges thrown at us by life.