Afrofuturism and the Paradox of Oppression

This video looks at a problem for writers and artists called the paradox of oppression, about the portrayal of oppressed groups in fiction and how techniques from Afrofutruism can help to resolve it.

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Information for this video gathered from The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, The Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy, The Cambridge Dictionary of Philosophy, The Oxford Dictionary of Philosophy, The Oxford Companion to Philosophy, The Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy, The Collier-MacMillan Encyclopedia of Philosophy, the Dictionary of Continental Philosophy, and more!

[Pfhorrest]

One possibility I'm surprised was not mentioned is that a single work can feature multiple characters and so show different aspects of the experience of people of an oppressed group simultaneously, one character's story focusing on aspects unrelated to the oppression of their group, and another focusing on (or at least illustrating) that oppression. Of course that has to be handled carefully so it doesn't just look like "oh see, these people CAN live perfectly fine non-oppressed lives if they just make the right choices like this one and unlike that one".

Also, a story can feature members of an oppressed group in a realist fashion where the oppression exists in their world, but isn't the focus of the story. The story is set in a world where oppression occurs like it really does, but just as an oppressed real person would likely not describe their life first and foremost in terms of their oppression but instead focus on their unique experiences, a story can focus on that kind of thing too, just against setting where oppression is an unremarkable given fact about reality that doesn't need to be highlighted for audiences.

Compare, for example, a story set in a world where there are cars, and they might occasionally be mentioned in passing as characters use them in normal ways in the course of the story, but it's not a story *about* cars. The choices aren't "story about cars" vs "story set in a post-car world"; a story can be set in a world where cars exists, but not be *about* them. Likewise oppression.

[InventiveHarvest]

The case of Roosevelt Franklin from Sesame Street is interesting. Sesame Street realized that all of their muppets were based on white archetypes. So, they made Roosevelt to be based off of black archetype. The black community was not happy with Roosevelt.

[wtfamiactuallyright]

The biggest insult is, not following the rules the original writer put in place. Even when the writer changes the rules, it's an insult but that doesn't stop people deciding if it's turned their work into a piece of bleep.
If it's a historical drama etc, I have no problem if the "actor" is, so long as they can pass it off with makeup etc.
Black Panther (And certainly, Wakanda forever.) was rubbish, like most superhero movies these days, even with some great acting.
Because they're failing in the creativity, story telling department, they flood the press with lies using ideology and false hope that they did great this time. This will only work for so long, even the best reputations can be lost.

'It's a racket' and these sickos need to lose their jobs for using things like race, sex etc, because they clearly don't have a creative bone in their body.

[Dayglodaydreams]

Art isn't above moral or political critique. Nothing is above moral critique. Nothing is above technical or aesthetic critique either.

[Millie-umbi]

Good exploration of the concept, thanks!

[BelegaerTheGreat]

Carnades just lost my respect by calling that Humanistic crap "paradox".

[Dayglodaydreams]

So, what is a Critical Theory of Disability vs. a Naturalistic or Christian Moralistic (Demonic Posession) or some other theory of disability?

[jackrabbit]

I tend to take a pragmatist's approach on this topic. There are far too many people obssessed with the notion of oppression, (especially today now that a semblance of equality has been given by law & commonplace), that they'll ignore facts or relevence only to demand benefits, status, rights, and rewards over another human being. And in order to accomplish this, they have to stare at race, at make their judgement, the wrong way to go about anything.

Glaring at race creates broken logic, and self-centered goals like Jessie Smollett's. As well as a society that protects that. Once equality is set, and law guards it, the only thing people can do is lead the next generation toward logical morals. Furthermore, like crime discrimination will always exist as an outlier, but for people to claim benefits or rights over another like they try today sickens me, and should anyone who's rational in their ideals. Just because someone of one race commits a crime, does not mean the entire race is criminal, with that same logic just because one person commits discrimination (the crime), does not mean their entire race is guilty or to be taxed.

The solution? People live their lives fairly, they create their own movies, their own Oscars, and their own roles. This requires change, and moving out of the areas full of crime & segregation no matter the honied words of politicians. We are at times our own worst segregators, often promoted by false promises and broken logic spewed by the rich and elitists. Slanted data is not used to misguide equal starting point. If one's discriminated against unfairly, only through unbiased hard evidence will the criminal be punished, and dues collected. Innocent, until proven guilty. Lastly, children are raised unbiased and taught there's only one race, human race, and to protect this human race, laws are based on fairness to the highest degree, thusly social oppression political propoganda is kept out of every jury, judge's and most importantly executioner's hands. Any social political ideals or propoganda is kept to politics, scrutinized, and debated scholars (not a bunch of crusty old corrupt hierarchical politicians) elected by their population.

[havenbastion]

While this topic is being deeply considered, there are real problems in the world.