Where They At Though: POC Narratives In Time Travel

You know what time it is! Nah, no you don’t! Because there’s like a thousand time-travel themed TV show episodes and movies! Not kidding, check it: paradoxes, plot holes, and all that jazz. Remember your old-school, timey-wimey pajama-jama jammy jams? Sliders (Rembrandt Brown? Really?), Back To The Future (aka What Are Thooose?), The Terminator, Groundhog Day, Time Bandits, 12 Monkeys, The Butterfly Effect, Star Trek IV… Now, think about some of your recent faves: Interstellar (say something, DeGrasse Tyson… I dare you), Looper, Primer, Hot Tub Time Machine, Edge of Tomorrow, the Star Trek reboot, Men In Black 3 (Not your faves? They fit the needs of my article, so deal with it). True friends… one question: If you create a player in an NBA game, what do they have to be? Answer: Gotta be a six-foot-eleven point guard with OD handles, dunks, and a three-ball, right? If you get your hands on a time machine, what is the all-time, A1-rule in all of nerddom (as in ‘nerd kingdom’, not ‘nerd fetish domination’, although I’m not judging)? Answer: Kill Hitler. Search for the episode titles, it’s really real. I’m sure it’s in no small part about his people skills; he be talking reckless about a lot of rappers.

But what do all but one of the films listed above have in common? Wait for it… No POC protagonists! Except for Men In Black 3, but that was kinda squandered. Will Smith did ‘the yell’ through five decades, when he should’ve went back and got sample clearance for “Nightmare …