I, like many people I”m sure, have some vague memories of the ‘classic’ scifi movie with Arnold (I happen to be a big arnold fan, as it happens). I’ve not seen the movie in years, but I sat down to watch the remake as i painted my nails today.

The movie, like much of scifi, takes place in the future. And, like much scifi, this future movie not only  is almost entirely devoid of Black people (baring one token character who, of course, dies), but features vague dystopian elements.

Now, I’d be inclined to simply agree: a future where most, if not all Black people in addition to their culture, fails to survive is dystopian. This is for sure. (and also lazy and racist, in case anyone is wondering).

One thing that struck me was the fact that in the ‘colony’ of the movie, it seems to be a sort of… neo-Tokyo/Hong Kong thing. Lots of Asians and lots of Asian influences (see the umbrellas). Of course it is that vague, general ‘Asian-ness’ on display here.

But it got me thinking: why is it that many scifi people seem to think that Asians and our cultures will last three hundred years in the future (or in the case of Firefly, our cultures but not us) but never any Black cultures. Never really any of the Indigenous ones from any part of this world. Why always Asian. Just anti-Blackness on its own doesn’t quite seem to account for it. Part of it seems to be the model minority stuff where, for some reason, white people think Asians, idk, can adapt and survive into the future (even if we end up, again, in the fucking ‘colony’ and being oppressed and in danger of being ethnically cleansed)?

This remake of Total Recall seems extra special in this regard ‘cause basically any non-white place on the planet has been wipped out and rendered uninhabitable. I mean… I guess this future actually seems depressingly likely to me.

sigh