Image Collage by Audre Smikle featuring: Alma Thomas, Red Azaleas Singing and Dancing Rock and Roll Music (1976), NASA April 12, 1981 Launch of Pad 39A STS-1, Pixabay on Pexels, Model Brittney King shows off Butterfly Braid by Grip and Twist, Shani Crowe, The Breadth We All Share, Shani Crowe, Suntrust, Shani Crow, Above All.
Lately, I have been thinking about the Earth 3488 and Earth 3698 as I sit in front of my computer on our Earth, Earth 1. The numerous differences between our worlds are decided by small or large actions that have created a rippled effect leading them farther and farther from our existence here on this plane. For example, I like to imagine that on Earth 3488, in 1492 Christopher Columbus never sailed across the ocean blue to commit genocide on the Indigenous people in the Americas and the Caribbean. On Earth 3698, the Portuguese never invaded the Gold Coast of Africa and kidnapped Africans, profiting from the Atlantic slave trade. In this world, racial capitalism was just a horror story instead of our reality.
In my imaginings, I like to envision spaces and alternative timelines like on Earth 503, where Al Gore won instead of Bush and we never entered Iraq or we never invaded Afghanistan. Or how the Christian Crusaders in the 11th century sought information and understanding rather than of obsessing over blood purity and rooting out religious and ethnic minorities. On Earth 1556, Hitler never invaded Poland and Jewish, gay, Black and brown people in Europe were allowed to live fully and breathe deeply. Six million souls lived, they laughed, they loved, and cried. In this world, Palestine is free, never knowing genocide and immeasurable pain of losing thousands of children who will never laugh or play in the streets of the Gaza Strip again. In these visions of our multiverse, there are plenty of opportunities to disrupt and decipher different versions of history where Black and Brown people are not subjects. Instead, they are beings with full control over their future and deep roots to their past.
In these worlds, liberation is actualized. Collectives are embraced. Cities are designed for people's joy and movement instead of cars and industry. These worlds have shared resources where arts and culture are accessible to everyone. In my imagination, there is no climate crisis, there is climate appreciation. There is unity and an acceptance of differences. We are tied together by this big blue marble hurling through space and we take care of our home.
What would it mean to reimagine the Earth we are on. To rebuild our connections to one another. To work beyond a zero sum game and work towards an equitable society where anybody can thrive? What would our world look like if we were connected by communal ties, not corporations bent on extracting the most resources and creating the most capital through immoral accumulation. What would it look like if everyone was able to breathe fresh clean air and no PFAs or microplastics were floating around in our blood?
We might not be able to achieve a world without colonization like Earth 3488, but we can work towards that vision. We hold our future in our hands, and we can choose clean water over corporate greed. We can choose to replicate these visions for ourselves and our communities. We are tied to the past, but we are not defined by it. In our day to day lives we can choose to live morally, righteously and embrace creative methods of resistance and survival. Our just future is dependent our collective visions. Will you dream with me?
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