[LINK] "Science fiction and the post-Ferguson world"

[rfmcdonald]

Mary Hansen's Open Democracy interview with writer and activist Walidah Imarisha about the potential of science fiction to offer possibilities was well worth reading. There is yet hope in the genre.

Mary Hansen: What was your reaction to the grand jury’s decision not to indict Darren Wilson, the police officer who shot the unarmed black teenager Mike Brown?

Walidah Imarisha: Someone on Twitter posted, “Just because I’m not surprised, doesn’t mean I’m not heartbroken.” And I think that was a succinct way of summing it up. I think that a reaffirmation of an unjust system by an unjust system is not surprising and is utterly heartbreaking because we are talking about lives. We’re talking about Mike Brown and Tamir Rice, and, unfortunately, thousands of black and brown folks who have been murdered by the police.

“It’s incredibly important that we begin to shift our thinking away from the state keeping us safe.”

I think that I would have been incredibly surprised if they had indicted Wilson, given the ways that policing functions in this nation. What’s most amazing and powerful is the response from the people. The fact that there were over 170 protests around the world in response to that is incredible. And that it’s not just about Darren Wilson; it’s about people mobilizing to say that this is not the world we want to live in.

MH: For you, science fiction offers a useful way of thinking through these issues—especially the writing of Octavia Butler. What’s the connection there?

WI: I think that science fiction and visionary fiction, as my co-editor Adrienne Maree Brown says, are a perfect testing ground to explore the countless alternatives that could exist to policing and institutions like prisons.

It’s incredibly important that we begin to shift our thinking away from the state keeping us safe, given that that has never been the purpose of the state—it’s never been the purpose of the police or the prison system—and instead begin to ask, how do we keep each other safe? How do we prevent harm from happening? How do we address harm when it does happen in our communities in ways that are about healing, and about wholeness, rather than about punishment and retribution?