I love cyberpunk and I love thrillers, mysteries, and noir. Thankfully, these genres seem to blend very well together and I’m provided content that supports my addiction ahem interest. The content ranges from films, books, tv shows, anime, comics, manga, and webtoons.
As a writer of cyberpunk noir, I am often amazed at how, well, non-diverse it is. For a futuristic subgenre of science fiction, you’d think the worlds depicted would be more, colorful., vibrant, and filled with a world [or worlds] that are representative of humanity’s ability to adapt to their environment. This is especially true for cyberpunk from the early 1980s and 1990s. If you look at the list of the 30 Best Cyberpunk movies on this list, it’s plain to see that there’s something missing.
So, does cyberpunk have a race issue?
With the success or cult following that Blade Runner obtained, films and creative content that came afterwards were filled with Asian inspired settings, dark, gritty, and still fairly homogenesis. When I found small representations of other people, I would leap for joy, but overall, the subgenre I loved didn’t seem to think Black folks made it to the future.
That is a common theme in a lot of science fiction, including many popular fandoms, with Star Trek being the exception, and the original Battlestar Galactica, not withstanding. Yes, there would be aliens, and others, but not unproblematic Black people.
I digress.
Cyberpunk’s race issue. I’m not the first person to see the glaring hole in the genre or it’s fetish for Asian aesthetics and languages, but not folks with dark skin. It’s been on my mind often since the release of my fourth Cybil Lewis novel. It’s cyberpunk noir, and it’s a series I’ve been writing since over 10 years. The fact that she hasn’t found her readership has as much to do with the fact that the lead is a Black woman, then it does the other external factors that influence sales.
Yes, I did consider that perhaps I am just not that good of a writer or that Cybil isn’t that great of a character.
If that’s true, you still cannot rule out the influence, or lack thereof, of a genre who is focused on and devoted to a certain racial aesthetic.
Now, you may mention the films that are exceptions [and exceptional] that do not fall into that trap. Movies such as The Matrix, which was very, very Black, even if The One was a white male and Morpheus served in a somewhat Magical Negro role. The same can be said for The Fifth Element, which also have a white male lead, but is so diverse, the supporting cast sells the movie. My favorite film, Strange Days, is a jewel in a sea a washed with white women leads in cyberpunk movies, with the ever-amazing Angela Basset as the female lead. There were hints to try to be more inclusive in cyberpunk stories over the last twenty years, but not too much.
If you know of more than I’ve listed here, feel free to share those in the comments. đŸ™‚