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Making a Case for Afrofuturism as a Critical Qualitative Inquiry Method for Liberation

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Using Afrofuturism as a research method encourages the imagination of new possibilities for Black liberation in a world where racial inequalities persist. Temidayo Eseonu discusses a pilot project, the Three Cities project, to demonstrate how Afrofuturism can be used as a research method.

Image courtesy of interviewee. May 28, 2024

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This video video discusses the concept of Afrofuturism as an epistemic project that envisions futures where Black people are central, thriving, and recovering their histories. It emphasizes the importance of Black agency in defining their futures and the role of research methods that empower minoritized communities, rather than rendering them as study objects. The speaker reflects on their experiences conducting research with racially minoritized youth, emphasizing the need to encourage discussions that lead to imagining positive futures rather than only focusing on oppressive experiences.

The speaker advocates for intentional public service design to create spaces for racially minoritized groups, emphasizing the importance of listening to their voices and understanding their needs. They detail their work with young people in various UK cities, where they utilized creative methodologies including storytelling, storyboarding, and prototyping to address issues of racism and promote imagined solutions.

Through discussions and creative expression, young participants highlighted their experiences with racism, leading to innovative ideas for addressing these issues, like a robot for reporting incidents of racism. The speaker stresses the need for educational institutions to reflect on their practices and policies to ensure inclusivity and proper support for marginalized students, seeking to challenge stereotypes and biases.

The ending of the text touches on the need for further exploration of imagination and creativity in envisioning futures free from oppression, noting that such imagination can often feel like a luxury. The speaker expresses interest in continuing their work in this area, particularly with older age groups, and encourages the application of Afrofuturism as a methodology in various contexts. Overall, the text highlights the significance of centering minoritized voices in envisioning equitable futures through creative and collaborative research methods.

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X-TIMESTAMP-MAP:LOCAL=00:00:00.000,MPEGTS=900000

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So a hundred percent.

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So I, I, Afrofuturism to start with a sort of,

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generic, def definition in kind of, plain English

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is, Afrofuturism is an epi epistemic project

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that has been going on for over a hundred,

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over a century with lots of different kind of,

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aesthetics.

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So from arts to, to fiction, to science fiction.

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Um, people have basically been reimagining, futures

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with, black people in it, with black people sort of,

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living in just worlds, with black people, sort of,

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recovering, history.

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So Eschen talks about that,

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and it's literally, so for me it's how,

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how do black people imagine themselves

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and the futures that they want for themselves?

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So taking into account some of the, sort

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of histories of oppression

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and how that translates into contemporary inequalities.

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And then sort of moving on to, okay, so

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what do we want our future to look like

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where there's liberation, where it's free from oppression?

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And so do research methods matter.

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I think they do a hundred percent.

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And I think, in the past, hun

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research methods have really been looking at racially

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minoritized people as objects to be studied.

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And, you know, we've got research, like

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so in fields like anthropology for example,

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that I've really kind of looked at at, at the other,

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as objects to be studied and to be understood.

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Um, but actually we're seeing a lot of, sort of,

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you know, from feminist research to anti-racist colonial,

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post-colonial, sort of practices, all sort

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of thing actually know they're minor minoritized groups

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that have agency.

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They know they can define the problem,

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they have solutions to the problem.

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And so working with them to create knowledge together,

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and that's what kind of research methods for me, matter

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because we are not kind of saying as academics, we're,

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we're parachuting into a situation

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and telling you how best to define a problem

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or how best to understand the problem

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or how best to kind of find solutions, particularly to sort

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of challenging social issues.

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We're saying that, with research, some

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research methods were really kind of centering the voices

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of, of minoritized communities.

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The motivation for the work actually came

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because of my, discomfort I guess,

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from when I was doing my PhD actually a couple of years ago,

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I had been working with,

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rich minoritized communities in, in, well recently minority

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as young people, in an area of northwest England.

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And there was this, there was a point

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where it felt like I was asking young people

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to tell me about the experiences of a particular service.

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Um, and they started sharing experiences of racism.

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And it just felt, it felt odd.

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'cause I was like, okay, I'm asking you all these questions,

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but I'm not then encouraging you

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to think about the solutions.

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Um, I'm not encouraging you to sort of,

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articulate things in your own words in different ways.

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That's not just kind of relying on just language in,

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in terms of just you talking to me.

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Um, so how can we, how can I have these types

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of conversations with young people without them leaving them

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with this taste of, gosh, my future is bleak.

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Like, you know, you know, my goodness,

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there's nothing I can do to challenge this kind of systems

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of oppression that I live within.

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And so that took me on, okay, what are some of the,

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how can I redo research differently?

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Public service design, I think there are lots of different,

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like lots of people do de define it very differently,

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but I think for us it's just an intentional,

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way in which services are designed.

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Um, so public services, so whether that's, I dunno,

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employment support, health.

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So any, any public, any service that is open

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to the public and free of charge.

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So how do you think about interaction between, sort

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of the public and how they use it,

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how they experience the service, how do they access it?

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So those are the kind of things

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that we were thinking about when we were thinking

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about public service design.

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And so for us with Afrofuturism, it was really kind

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of using it in that way,

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particularly within public service design was just around

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how do we encourage researchers

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and also kind of public, service providers

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to think about the possibilities of the futures for,

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for racially minoritized groups.

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So we found that actually, sometimes,

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so there will be a reliance on sort of explicit stereotypes,

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and some implicit assumptions which kind of speak

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to the inferiority of racially minoritized communities.

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Um, because again, we are living in this racialized society

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where people kind of, you know, consciously, unconsciously,

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lean into these stereotypes when they're,

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when they're thinking about like a

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service user, for example.

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And so futurism seeks to interrupt that, to sort of say,

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actually, here is,

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a collective po politics are possible.

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This is what racially minoritized people are telling us.

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Because through this imaginary evidence, if you like, of

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what people are saying, they want their futures

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to look like these are the possibilities

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or the futures that we can imagine when we are trying

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to de design a service in order for it to be effective

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and efficient and all those kind of, kind of, words.

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And that was funded by Landy Chase

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or philanthropy organization.

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And they gave, gave me, the freedom

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to basically, 'cause I was interested again, in

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how do I create knowledge in pursuit of racial equity,

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racial justice, and this is where kind of our food came in.

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And so they gave, they funded me to run some workshops

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with young people.

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Uh, so I ran the workshops in three cities, so, London

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to be more specific in Birmingham and then in Manchester,

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but with two groups of, of young people.

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And I worked with. Um, so there's this, there's a,

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there's black supplementary schools.

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So these are, there's a historic movement,

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and it's still ongoing, excuse me, where,

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Black educators, black parents

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and black communities have come together

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to set up supplementary schools for the mainstream education

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because they found that mainstream education isn't really

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working for their children because of the histories.

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So for example, in the UK we had something like,

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Caribbean, kids were, labeled, education,

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so sub normal, so a lot of parents kind of in, in resistance

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to that set of supplementary school.

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So they've been going for years. And so I partnered with,

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different organizations in the city.

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And what we did is myself

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and someone, co seko, who's the co-author on the,

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on the, on the, article,

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basically designed, workshops.

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So we ran over two weeks, two Saturdays,

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a couple of hours each time.

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And basically we just went in.

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Um, and so my, my colleague Florence is, a,

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a service designer,

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and she's also kind of working the Afrofuturism space.

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So we, and then with my experience of kind of, you know,

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statistics and racism and,

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and, well, not statistics actually,

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but in terms of my, my research, so we, we came together

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and designed these services that were basically,

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first focusing on actually how do young people,

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what are the experiences of racism?

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So we, we had a lot of conversation with that.

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Um, and different,

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and depending on the age group, different things kind

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of came out, from that.

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And they were, the young people were aged between about,

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we actually were quite young,

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from about eight in some instances all the way to about 16.

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Um, and then sort of, sort of

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after kind of discussing, okay, what are,

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what have your experiences,

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we then focus in the next session about actually's case.

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So what can we do then to challenge,

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racism in our schools, racism in kind of the,

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in the wider world, or issues that you care about.

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Um, so we use different kind of, design methodologies

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and tools, to yeah, for students to kind of tell us

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of their experiences, but then also kind of

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imagine solutions to these issues.

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We did things like, storyboarding.

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So we, so in the first, in the first instance,

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we just asked them, you know, what, what, what has,

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what issues mattered to you?

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Then kind of what your experiences around,

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racism in particular.

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So we had conversations all the way from kind of,

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road kills and,

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and all the way down to kind of, then sort

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of particular experiences of, of racism.

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Um, so we did things like, this idea, so this kind

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of talk based where everybody gets a chance to speak,

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we used, sort of drawings, so encourage young people,

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especially the younger, groups.

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So for, so we did like create your own superhero.

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And the superhero would then, they would use

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that superhero superpowers to tell us how,

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what exactly they wanted to see happen.

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Right? Um, so like, so for a young, young, a younger,

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one of the younger participants she drove,

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she was into fashion design, so she created,

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like a fashion, yeah, just painted

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and designed like a fashion outfit.

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And then had, so Afro hair,

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'cause one of the things that we're talking about was

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how Afro hair is called ugly, for example.

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So she created a bond, with Afro hair,

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but it through like, like these, I dunno

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what they're called, but puffs,

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and then she was like, the puffs will be able to zap racism.

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And so it was kind of like turning on the head,

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the experience that, you know, your hair is ugly,

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to actually know your hair is a power as a source of power.

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Um, so that was, so it was things like

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that we tried lots of different things.

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We did, some prototyping, for example.

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So one of the young people had an idea about, a robot

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where they could report incidences of racism, to,

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because one of the issues was

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that they didn't feel like a lot

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of the times the teachers took reports of racism seriously.

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Um, and when you think that, I think, well, no, I think the,

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the local authority stopped, asking schools

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to report on, incidents of racism.

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So, you know, a lot of the times for the young,

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for the young people that we were talking to, it was,

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it was brushed under the carpet.

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Um, so this young person's idea was to create a robot

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that will actually do something right,

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and either, you know, provide some sort of support

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for the person that's reported it,

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and then also some kind of, I guess a consequence or,

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or, you know, like a, okay, what happens

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to the person who was racist.

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Um, and they created a, the,

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the young person created a prototype of that robot

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and have a picture of that somewhere,

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but it created a prototype of what

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that robot will look, will look like.

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And so we used sort of lots of different things like that,

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to just, and, and,

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and what it, the thing with Afrofuturism,

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because it's aesthetics, so it could range from kind

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of storytelling all the way to sort of, you know,

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actual prototypes, to sort of drawings and comics.

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So we went through all the, yeah, all,

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all the different kind of methods,

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but yeah, this is, this are some of the,

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the things that came through.

10:56.185 --> 11:00.565
So what came out was that, the experiences of racism,

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like I, I think there's this myth that we've, we,

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there's been some progress in how kind of racism

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functions in this, in society.

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Um, and I remember sort of all the, you know,

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so from saying like, you know, black, black kids being told

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that they're ugly, black kids being told

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that their hair is ugly, you know, to sort of teachers,

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so a student telling a teacher, so one

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of the older participants telling a teacher that they wanted

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to study, can't remember what exactly,

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'cause I don't have that to hand, but they wanted

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to study some kind of a stem subject,

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and the teacher was like, I'm not sure

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that you can, I'm not sure that's for you.

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Do you wanna consider sports?

11:35.905 --> 11:39.205
And so it was things like that, that, that the stories

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that they were telling us about or,

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and in more, in, in some cases, for example, you know,

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where for example, one, another participant was like,

11:47.205 --> 11:51.285
there was a stabbing of one of their, colleague,

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well not friends, but their peers sort of in the school,

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and there was the assumption that they'll be okay with that,

11:57.205 --> 11:58.645
that that was part of their normal lives.

11:58.745 --> 12:01.125
But the, but the person was like, no, it was traumatic,

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but no one seemed to kind of respond to that

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and check that they were okay.

12:05.905 --> 12:08.725
And so it was all these different things that, you know,

12:09.215 --> 12:10.565
young people were sharing with us.

12:10.665 --> 12:13.485
And when we were sort of, we talked to some

12:13.485 --> 12:14.525
of the parents informally,

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and they were saying that that was their own experience in

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the school system as well.

12:18.905 --> 12:21.845
And so, so it really kind of challenged, really challenged

12:21.845 --> 12:23.605
and brought to the forefront of my mind.

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And I, this is something I knew had knowledge

12:25.755 --> 12:27.805
that we haven't progressed as much,

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particularly systemically.

12:29.775 --> 12:32.045
Maybe not in, in terms of interpersonal,

12:32.165 --> 12:33.685
I think people do know that there's

12:33.685 --> 12:34.805
some lines that you can't cross.

12:34.825 --> 12:35.925
But I think systemically,

12:36.295 --> 12:38.445
those structures are very much still in place

12:38.505 --> 12:41.365
and embedded, which led me on to kind of,

12:41.465 --> 12:42.885
and I'm still working on that now.

12:42.885 --> 12:45.925
So I've now, I'm now working with just a particular group

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of young people in Manchester now.

12:48.245 --> 12:50.405
And the next steps is then to sort of bring

12:51.105 --> 12:52.485
the knowledge from the pilots,

12:52.485 --> 12:55.845
the knowledge from this project to, to, to, to work

12:55.845 --> 12:58.325
with educators, in the city

12:58.465 --> 13:01.325
and just see where, where, you know, see where we can go

13:01.325 --> 13:02.405
with it basically.

13:02.825 --> 13:05.405
Um, because yeah, there's, there's a lot of work

13:05.475 --> 13:07.685
that still needs to be done, be done.

13:07.685 --> 13:10.205
And I think this is the thing, it is like with where,

13:10.215 --> 13:11.845
where sort of and and to be

13:11.845 --> 13:14.045
and that experience of not feeling racism.

13:14.525 --> 13:15.925
I think that also came

13:15.925 --> 13:17.405
through when I was doing my PhD project,

13:17.765 --> 13:19.125
'cause of where they grew up in,

13:19.125 --> 13:21.965
they grew up in a multicultural,

13:21.965 --> 13:23.365
they were never in the minority.

13:23.415 --> 13:24.965
There wasn't just a few of them.

13:25.425 --> 13:28.085
Um, so it, they did get that sense of oddness.

13:28.585 --> 13:32.285
Um, but I think where there are not that many,

13:32.735 --> 13:36.885
which minoritized groups of people, whether that's in staff

13:37.065 --> 13:41.245
or, or, if you are not getting a sense of,

13:41.505 --> 13:45.625
of a sense of belonging, I think this is

13:45.625 --> 13:47.505
where the school has a role to play.

13:47.605 --> 13:49.625
So it's things like looking at, you know, how,

13:49.765 --> 13:51.225
how are your rules being applied?

13:51.735 --> 13:52.745
What are the narratives

13:52.745 --> 13:54.305
that are being told within your school?

13:54.305 --> 13:55.705
Like in the curriculum,

13:55.725 --> 13:57.545
do do young people see themselves?

13:58.085 --> 14:00.145
Um, you know, I remember having to have a conversation

14:00.145 --> 14:03.665
with my daughter's school, about the kind of books

14:03.665 --> 14:04.945
that she was bringing home

14:04.975 --> 14:07.465
that just didn't reflect her at all, for example.

14:08.165 --> 14:11.705
Um, and you know, not every parent maybe has the kind

14:11.705 --> 14:13.545
of capital to have those conversations.

14:13.685 --> 14:16.185
So where the school is aware of these things

14:16.325 --> 14:20.425
and thinking about, okay, how do we, center a multi,

14:20.605 --> 14:23.785
you know, to use that word, multicultural, education

14:24.315 --> 14:27.505
where, students feel like they know that, okay,

14:27.505 --> 14:31.575
if I report an incidence of racism, intent,

14:31.575 --> 14:33.295
whether it's, whether it's with intent

14:33.295 --> 14:35.575
or not, how is the school going to deal with that?

14:35.635 --> 14:37.095
Are they going to brush it under the carpet

14:37.195 --> 14:38.575
and just say, no, we did mean that.

14:38.955 --> 14:41.415
But it's like, well, I, it might not meant that,

14:41.435 --> 14:44.215
but there was, there was a hurt behind, there was, you know,

14:44.215 --> 14:46.335
there was hurt behind, behind what the,

14:46.555 --> 14:47.895
the word or the action was.

14:47.995 --> 14:49.495
And, and, and so it's things like that.

14:49.495 --> 14:54.165
It's how do we really think about how our students,

14:54.545 --> 14:56.885
are experiencing education when they're with us?

14:57.465 --> 15:00.885
Um, are we disproportionately sort of disciplining racially,

15:00.885 --> 15:03.965
minoritized, communi, students in the school

15:03.965 --> 15:06.165
because we have consciously, unconsciously

15:06.585 --> 15:10.005
and sort of biases that black girls are aggressive,

15:10.105 --> 15:13.245
you know, like kissing my teeth, as a black girl,

15:13.555 --> 15:15.845
it's just kind of, you know, it how that,

15:15.845 --> 15:16.925
how is that interpreted?

15:17.065 --> 15:19.725
Is that ignored or is that sort of taking to the next level?

15:19.745 --> 15:21.725
And they're like, right, you're going to detention.

15:22.345 --> 15:23.845
Um, and you know, so it's, or,

15:23.865 --> 15:26.565
or you know, sort of thinking as, black boys

15:27.065 --> 15:29.365
as just not interested in education, for example.

15:29.425 --> 15:33.725
And then, so if, if a young person is then, not sort

15:33.725 --> 15:36.565
of seeming, showing, seemingly showing interest is to sort

15:36.565 --> 15:37.605
of write that person off

15:38.065 --> 15:39.525
or, you know, so what are the ways

15:39.525 --> 15:41.445
that we think about the possibilities

15:41.505 --> 15:44.445
of racially minoritized children in school?

15:45.065 --> 15:47.805
Um, and I think there's, so yes, there's a part

15:47.805 --> 15:51.495
for the parents to do, do sort of, encouraging them

15:51.515 --> 15:53.015
and providing that safe space,

15:53.595 --> 15:57.055
but giving the amount of time that students spend in school

15:57.155 --> 15:59.495
and how instrumental, how,

15:59.495 --> 16:03.135
central the education experience is to sort of develop to,

16:03.155 --> 16:04.935
to developing a student's identity.

16:05.615 --> 16:07.215
I think we need to kind of look at

16:07.315 --> 16:09.335
and really kind of think through,

16:09.715 --> 16:11.935
how do we curate a space,

16:12.075 --> 16:14.015
for racial minoritized young people

16:14.035 --> 16:15.575
to feel like, you know, I belong here.

16:15.675 --> 16:16.895
I'm not gonna be othered.

16:16.895 --> 16:19.615
They're gonna listen and take my, my kind of,

16:20.475 --> 16:23.215
not issues, but, you know, take, take into account sort

16:23.215 --> 16:24.375
of my experience when they're,

16:24.375 --> 16:27.215
when they're thinking about the school educational policy.

16:27.495 --> 16:30.975
I think this is, this is my, my three things is, you know,

16:30.995 --> 16:33.415
to look at what narratives,

16:33.995 --> 16:37.935
are being used about racially minoritized, young people,

16:38.475 --> 16:40.575
you know, how are you imagining them to be,

16:40.995 --> 16:42.775
are you imagining the worst stereotype

16:42.855 --> 16:45.455
that you've ever heard of or read about or maybe seen?

16:45.995 --> 16:48.215
Or are you actually thinking of them as individuals

16:48.215 --> 16:49.575
with possibilities and potential?

16:49.575 --> 16:51.215
And how do we curate spaces for that?

16:51.975 --> 16:55.095
I will also sort of think about the, the, the practices.

16:55.155 --> 16:57.975
So how, you know, how are you, how do you,

16:58.035 --> 16:59.895
how do you operate in your school?

17:00.475 --> 17:04.775
Um, how do you make sure that your, you know, the things

17:04.775 --> 17:07.775
that you do in terms of, you know, reading, like, you know,

17:07.775 --> 17:09.575
I'm not, so yeah, what are, how do you make sure

17:09.575 --> 17:10.775
that your rules

17:10.875 --> 17:13.735
and practices, so what you say in your policies

17:13.735 --> 17:16.135
and how you then enact those policies in terms of the rules

17:16.155 --> 17:17.655
and the practices that you have.

17:18.435 --> 17:20.535
How do you make sure they're not disproportionately

17:20.765 --> 17:23.295
impacting on, on, racial minoritized kids?

17:23.635 --> 17:25.695
And obviously there's a public sector equality duty.

17:26.155 --> 17:30.615
Um, and so if people do take that quite, to heart

17:31.115 --> 17:32.455
and really do a process

17:32.455 --> 17:33.775
through which they're thinking actually,

17:33.775 --> 17:35.935
who's gonna be most affected by any changes in policy,

17:36.695 --> 17:38.975
I think, or, or actually even just an audit

17:39.475 --> 17:40.775
of current policies

17:41.235 --> 17:43.815
and the practices, just to say, actually,

17:43.995 --> 17:45.935
how do we make sure that we are, you know,

17:45.935 --> 17:48.775
from the curriculum to who we employ, you know, all the sort

17:48.775 --> 17:51.845
of use, there's nothing new in terms of the advice to give.

17:51.915 --> 17:54.205
Lots of people have given these types of advice in the past.

17:54.305 --> 17:57.005
So we just be to kind of listen, listen to the, you know,

17:57.005 --> 17:58.645
listen to the young people in terms of

17:58.645 --> 18:00.805
what particular things they want to,

18:00.865 --> 18:02.005
to sort of be put in place.

18:02.545 --> 18:04.525
Um, and in terms of future research,

18:04.565 --> 18:06.405
I think it'd be right, really quite interesting for me

18:06.405 --> 18:10.285
to maybe work with an older age group,

18:10.425 --> 18:13.405
and to see whether imagination has been stifled.

18:13.725 --> 18:15.885
'cause I, I know I've been, sort of,

18:16.195 --> 18:18.605
someone said this, I can't remember who's, unfortunately,

18:18.685 --> 18:19.845
I can't attribute it to them,

18:19.905 --> 18:21.645
but they were saying that actually imagination

18:21.645 --> 18:22.805
is, is sometimes a luxury.

18:23.705 --> 18:25.525
Um, so where the world

18:25.585 --> 18:29.765
and system has ground you down, like how easy is it

18:29.865 --> 18:32.005
to imagine a world that's free from

18:32.005 --> 18:33.165
oppression and liberation?

18:33.345 --> 18:35.245
And, and I think there's a whole movement around

18:35.245 --> 18:37.325
that actually, around kind of how do you re re

18:38.125 --> 18:40.125
reinvent imagination and playfulness

18:40.305 --> 18:43.245
and, into sort of, you know, with adults.

18:43.385 --> 18:45.445
So that would be an interesting place to take it.

18:45.465 --> 18:46.805
But I think I would also want

18:46.805 --> 18:48.725
to see more people use the methodology

18:49.145 --> 18:51.445
and see how they take it forward and,

18:51.885 --> 18:54.325
'cause this is one interpretation of Afrofuturism

18:54.325 --> 18:56.125
as a methodology, but there might be lots

18:56.125 --> 18:58.405
of other different ways that people sort

18:58.405 --> 18:59.445
of think and use it.

18:59.625 --> 19:01.525
And it'll be really, really sort of interesting

19:01.525 --> 19:02.285
and great to see that.

Reimagining Futures: The Intersection of Afrofuturism and Public Service Design

00:00:00 - So a hundred percent. So I, I, Afrofuturism to start with a sort of, generic, def definition in kind of, plain English is, Afrofuturism is an epi epistemic project that has been going on for over a hundred, over a century with lots of different kind of, aesthetics. So from arts to, to fiction, to science fiction. people have basically been reimagining, futures with, black people in it, with black people sort of, living in just worlds, with black people, sort of, recovering, history. So Eschen talks about that,
00:00:45 - how do black people imagine themselves and the futures that they want for themselves? So taking into account some of the, sort of histories of oppression and how that translates into contemporary inequalities. And then sort of moving on to, okay, so what do we want our future to look like where there's liberation, where it's free from oppression? And so do research methods matter. I think they do a hundred percent. And I think, in the past, hun research methods have really been looking at racially minoritized people as objects to be studied. And, you know, we've got research, like so in fields like anthropology for example,
00:01:25 - as objects to be studied and to be understood. but actually we're seeing a lot of, sort of, you know, from feminist research to anti-racist colonial, post-colonial, sort of practices, all sort of thing actually know they're minor minoritized groups that have agency. They know they can define the problem, they have solutions to the problem. And so working with them to create knowledge together, and that's what kind of research methods for me, matter because we are not kind of saying as academics, we're, we're parachuting into a situation and telling you how best to define a problem or how best to understand the problem
00:02:06 - of challenging social issues. We're saying that, with research, some research methods were really kind of centering the voices of, of minoritized communities. The motivation for the work actually came because of my, discomfort I guess, from when I was doing my PhD actually a couple of years ago, I had been working with, rich minoritized communities in, in, well recently minority as young people, in an area of northwest England. And there was this, there was a point where it felt like I was asking young people to tell me about the experiences of a particular service.
00:02:46 - And it just felt, it felt odd. 'cause I was like, okay, I'm asking you all these questions, but I'm not then encouraging you to think about the solutions. I'm not encouraging you to sort of, articulate things in your own words in different ways. That's not just kind of relying on just language in, in terms of just you talking to me. so how can we, how can I have these types of conversations with young people without them leaving them with this taste of, gosh, my future is bleak. Like, you know, you know, my goodness, there's nothing I can do to challenge this kind of systems of oppression that I live within. And so that took me on, okay, what are some of the,
00:03:25 - Public service design, I think there are lots of different, like lots of people do de define it very differently, but I think for us it's just an intentional, way in which services are designed. so public services, so whether that's, I dunno, employment support, health. So any, any public, any service that is open to the public and free of charge. So how do you think about interaction between, sort of the public and how they use it, how they experience the service, how do they access it? So those are the kind of things that we were thinking about when we were thinking about public service design. And so for us with Afrofuturism, it was really kind of using it in that way, particularly within public service design was just around

"Envisioning Inclusive Futures: Afrofuturism in Public Service Design"

00:04:09 - and also kind of public, service providers to think about the possibilities of the futures for, for racially minoritized groups. So we found that actually, sometimes, so there will be a reliance on sort of explicit stereotypes, and some implicit assumptions which kind of speak to the inferiority of racially minoritized communities. because again, we are living in this racialized society where people kind of, you know, consciously, unconsciously, lean into these stereotypes when they're, when they're thinking about like a service user, for example. And so futurism seeks to interrupt that, to sort of say,
00:04:49 - a collective po politics are possible. This is what racially minoritized people are telling us. Because through this imaginary evidence, if you like, of what people are saying, they want their futures to look like these are the possibilities or the futures that we can imagine when we are trying to de design a service in order for it to be effective and efficient and all those kind of, kind of, words. And that was funded by Landy Chase or philanthropy organization. And they gave, gave me, the freedom to basically, 'cause I was interested again, in how do I create knowledge in pursuit of racial equity, racial justice, and this is where kind of our food came in. And so they gave, they funded me to run some workshops
00:05:32 - so I ran the workshops in three cities, so, London to be more specific in Birmingham and then in Manchester, but with two groups of, of young people. And I worked with. so there's this, there's a, there's black supplementary schools. So these are, there's a historic movement, and it's still ongoing, excuse me, where, Black educators, black parents and black communities have come together to set up supplementary schools for the mainstream education because they found that mainstream education isn't really working for their children because of the histories. So for example, in the UK we had something like,
00:06:16 - so sub normal, so a lot of parents kind of in, in resistance to that set of supplementary school. So they've been going for years. And so I partnered with, different organizations in the city. And what we did is myself and someone, co seko, who's the co-author on the, on the, on the, article, basically designed, workshops. So we ran over two weeks, two Saturdays, a couple of hours each time. And basically we just went in. and so my, my colleague Florence is, a, a service designer, and she's also kind of working the Afrofuturism space. So we, and then with my experience of kind of, you know,
00:06:55 - and, well, not statistics actually, but in terms of my, my research, so we, we came together and designed these services that were basically, first focusing on actually how do young people, what are the experiences of racism? So we, we had a lot of conversation with that. and different, and depending on the age group, different things kind of came out, from that. And they were, the young people were aged between about, we actually were quite young, from about eight in some instances all the way to about 16. and then sort of, sort of after kind of discussing, okay, what are, what have your experiences, we then focus in the next session about actually's case. So what can we do then to challenge,
00:07:38 - in the wider world, or issues that you care about. so we use different kind of, design methodologies and tools, to yeah, for students to kind of tell us of their experiences, but then also kind of imagine solutions to these issues. We did things like, storyboarding. So we, so in the first, in the first instance, we just asked them, you know, what, what, what has, what issues mattered to you? Then kind of what your experiences around, racism in particular. So we had conversations all the way from kind of, road kills and, and all the way down to kind of, then sort

"Empowering Voices: Using Creativity to Address Racism and Promote Identity"

00:08:18 - so we did things like, this idea, so this kind of talk based where everybody gets a chance to speak, we used, sort of drawings, so encourage young people, especially the younger, groups. So for, so we did like create your own superhero. And the superhero would then, they would use that superhero superpowers to tell us how, what exactly they wanted to see happen. Right? so like, so for a young, young, a younger, one of the younger participants she drove, she was into fashion design, so she created, like a fashion, yeah, just painted
00:09:01 - And then had, so Afro hair, 'cause one of the things that we're talking about was how Afro hair is called ugly, for example. So she created a bond, with Afro hair, but it through like, like these, I dunno what they're called, but puffs, and then she was like, the puffs will be able to zap racism. And so it was kind of like turning on the head, the experience that, you know, your hair is ugly, to actually know your hair is a power as a source of power. so that was, so it was things like that we tried lots of different things. We did, some prototyping, for example. So one of the young people had an idea about, a robot where they could report incidences of racism, to,
00:09:43 - that they didn't feel like a lot of the times the teachers took reports of racism seriously. and when you think that, I think, well, no, I think the, the local authority stopped, asking schools to report on, incidents of racism. So, you know, a lot of the times for the young, for the young people that we were talking to, it was, it was brushed under the carpet. so this young person's idea was to create a robot that will actually do something right, and either, you know, provide some sort of support for the person that's reported it, and then also some kind of, I guess a consequence or, or, you know, like a, okay, what happens to the person who was racist. and they created a, the,
00:10:26 - and have a picture of that somewhere, but it created a prototype of what that robot will look, will look like. And so we used sort of lots of different things like that, to just, and, and, and what it, the thing with Afrofuturism, because it's aesthetics, so it could range from kind of storytelling all the way to sort of, you know, actual prototypes, to sort of drawings and comics. So we went through all the, yeah, all, all the different kind of methods, but yeah, this is, this are some of the, the things that came through. So what came out was that, the experiences of racism, like I, I think there's this myth that we've, we,
00:11:07 - functions in this, in society. and I remember sort of all the, you know, so from saying like, you know, black, black kids being told that they're ugly, black kids being told that their hair is ugly, you know, to sort of teachers, so a student telling a teacher, so one of the older participants telling a teacher that they wanted to study, can't remember what exactly, 'cause I don't have that to hand, but they wanted to study some kind of a stem subject, and the teacher was like, I'm not sure that you can, I'm not sure that's for you. Do you wanna consider sports? And so it was things like that, that, that the stories that they were telling us about or, and in more, in, in some cases, for example, you know,
00:11:47 - there was a stabbing of one of their, colleague, well not friends, but their peers sort of in the school, and there was the assumption that they'll be okay with that, that that was part of their normal lives. But the, but the person was like, no, it was traumatic, but no one seemed to kind of respond to that and check that they were okay. And so it was all these different things that, you know, young people were sharing with us. And when we were sort of, we talked to some of the parents informally, and they were saying that that was their own experience in the school system as well. And so, so it really kind of challenged, really challenged and brought to the forefront of my mind. And I, this is something I knew had knowledge

"Rethinking School Narratives and Creating Inclusive Spaces for Racially Minoritized Students"**

00:12:28 - particularly systemically. Maybe not in, in terms of interpersonal, I think people do know that there's some lines that you can't cross. But I think systemically, those structures are very much still in place and embedded, which led me on to kind of, and I'm still working on that now. So I've now, I'm now working with just a particular group of young people in Manchester now. And the next steps is then to sort of bring the knowledge from the pilots, the knowledge from this project to, to, to, to work with educators, in the city and just see where, where, you know, see where we can go with it basically. because yeah, there's, there's a lot of work that still needs to be done, be done.
00:13:10 - where sort of and and to be and that experience of not feeling racism. I think that also came through when I was doing my PhD project, 'cause of where they grew up in, they grew up in a multicultural, they were never in the minority. There wasn't just a few of them. so it, they did get that sense of oddness. but I think where there are not that many, which minoritized groups of people, whether that's in staff or, or, if you are not getting a sense of, of a sense of belonging, I think this is where the school has a role to play. So it's things like looking at, you know, how,
00:13:51 - What are the narratives that are being told within your school? Like in the curriculum, do do young people see themselves? you know, I remember having to have a conversation with my daughter's school, about the kind of books that she was bringing home that just didn't reflect her at all, for example. and you know, not every parent maybe has the kind of capital to have those conversations. So where the school is aware of these things and thinking about, okay, how do we, center a multi, you know, to use that word, multicultural, education where, students feel like they know that, okay, if I report an incidence of racism, intent,
00:14:33 - or not, how is the school going to deal with that? Are they going to brush it under the carpet and just say, no, we did mean that. But it's like, well, I, it might not meant that, but there was, there was a hurt behind, there was, you know, there was hurt behind, behind what the, the word or the action was. And, and, and so it's things like that. It's how do we really think about how our students, are experiencing education when they're with us? are we disproportionately sort of disciplining racially, minoritized, communi, students in the school because we have consciously, unconsciously and sort of biases that black girls are aggressive, you know, like kissing my teeth, as a black girl,
00:15:15 - how is that interpreted? Is that ignored or is that sort of taking to the next level? And they're like, right, you're going to detention. and you know, so it's, or, or you know, sort of thinking as, black boys as just not interested in education, for example. And then, so if, if a young person is then, not sort of seeming, showing, seemingly showing interest is to sort of write that person off or, you know, so what are the ways that we think about the possibilities of racially minoritized children in school? and I think there's, so yes, there's a part for the parents to do, do sort of, encouraging them and providing that safe space,
00:15:57 - and how instrumental, how, central the education experience is to sort of develop to, to developing a student's identity. I think we need to kind of look at and really kind of think through, how do we curate a space, for racial minoritized young people to feel like, you know, I belong here. I'm not gonna be othered. They're gonna listen and take my, my kind of, not issues, but, you know, take, take into account sort of my experience when they're, when they're thinking about the school educational policy. I think this is, this is my, my three things is, you know, to look at what narratives,

"Reimagining Educational Spaces: Cultivating Potential Beyond Stereotypes"

00:16:38 - you know, how are you imagining them to be, are you imagining the worst stereotype that you've ever heard of or read about or maybe seen? Or are you actually thinking of them as individuals with possibilities and potential? And how do we curate spaces for that? I will also sort of think about the, the, the practices. So how, you know, how are you, how do you, how do you operate in your school? how do you make sure that your, you know, the things that you do in terms of, you know, reading, like, you know, I'm not, so yeah, what are, how do you make sure that your rules and practices, so what you say in your policies and how you then enact those policies in terms of the rules
00:17:18 - How do you make sure they're not disproportionately impacting on, on, racial minoritized kids? And obviously there's a public sector equality duty. and so if people do take that quite, to heart and really do a process through which they're thinking actually, who's gonna be most affected by any changes in policy, I think, or, or actually even just an audit of current policies and the practices, just to say, actually, how do we make sure that we are, you know, from the curriculum to who we employ, you know, all the sort of use, there's nothing new in terms of the advice to give. Lots of people have given these types of advice in the past. So we just be to kind of listen, listen to the, you know,
00:17:58 - what particular things they want to, to sort of be put in place. and in terms of future research, I think it'd be right, really quite interesting for me to maybe work with an older age group, and to see whether imagination has been stifled. 'cause I, I know I've been, sort of, someone said this, I can't remember who's, unfortunately, I can't attribute it to them, but they were saying that actually imagination is, is sometimes a luxury. so where the world and system has ground you down, like how easy is it to imagine a world that's free from oppression and liberation? And, and I think there's a whole movement around that actually, around kind of how do you re re
00:19:01 - and, into sort of, you know, with adults. So that would be an interesting place to take it. But I think I would also want to see more people use the methodology and see how they take it forward and, 'cause this is one interpretation of Afrofuturism as a methodology, but there might be lots of other different ways that people sort of think and use it. And it'll be really, really sort of interesting and great to see that.

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