Kindred
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Ah, my favorite sci-fi trope has finally exposed itself inKindred.
Its something that is pretty much inevitable when telling stories that involve time travel.
How much can we alter the past without irreparable damage to the present?
Its a fun and thought-provoking idea to toy with in the various scenarios sci-fi characters find themselves in.
Not always fun for them, but engaging for the viewer.
InKindred, this paradox is less far-fetched: What would happen if a white person never raped your ancestor?
What would that mean for you?
Those are dark questions to ask but an inevitable situation the majority of Black Americans can relate to.
TheaverageBlack American has about 75 percent African ancestry.
(I personally have even less than that, regardless of having two Black parents and four Black grandparents.
Beyond that, I cant make any promises.)
The ancestry and genetics of race are things society has trouble grappling with.
Teaching the distinction between race, ethnicity, and nationality can be like explaining open heart surgery.
I may have more white blood than she does Black.
This makes things especially complicated for Dana who would she be without her white ancestor?
Would she even exist?
Is her existence worth the torture of her Black ancestors?
Or is it all inevitable because if its not Rufus, itll be another man?
If its not her ancestor, itll be someone elses.
No matter how you frame it, our identities are permanently bound to those who hate us.
Some Black science fiction fans refer to this as the Black Grandmother Paradox.
This time, Rufus has gotten what seems like alcohol poisoning.
Here, they meet Winnie, a new woman Tom bought as his concubine, working in the kitchen.
Instead, she wants to leave Maryland with Alice and head as North as possible.
This is where the episode goes entirely left.
Not in an adaptation of an Octavia Butler book that is specifically about Black womanhood.
Even as someone who has dated white men, I was appalled.
Modern-day gender roles still require women to be submissive and never threatening.
Gender and gender roles are key elements of the story.
What is consent to a Black woman who is considered livestock?
Is using your sexuality as a means of survival an immoral choice?
These questions unfold in the book through Danas relationship with Rufus eventual concubine.
This is such a surface-level analysis of the parallels between Danas relationship with Kevin and her relationship with Rufus.
That analysis is further muddied by Danas sudden sexual desire.
And Im saying this as someone who had a serious long-term relationship with a white man.
But there hasnt been a constructive opportunity to do that in the show.
But we get lengthy scenes about Kevin and the Weylin family.
Theres too much screen time for white men.
We even get a little story about Tom dressing up Winnie in Hannahs dresses.
Where is this context and character development for the Black characters?
Now that Dana and Kevin are staying in the past longer, Ill be waiting patiently.
Only one of us was viewed as human, and only one of us is still hurting today.
And once again, why is whiteness so front and center in the show?
Olivia eating the candy Dana brought cracked me up; I know she missed real food.
The danger and torture would be unbearable.
I have to apologize for a typo in the previous recaps.
I stated that they are in 1876, but the year is 1815.
Ive never been good with dates, and the book took place in 1976, and I got jumbled.
My dad, a professor of Pan-African studies, would be so disappointed in me.
The Emancipation Proclamation was signed in 1863, so I was way off
