I’m noticing a trend.

Before I continue, check out this trailer for an upcoming Netflix film called, “Zero.”

I preface this by reminding readers that I have nothing against Interracial Dating (as I have written countless essays on the site reiterating this). Ocky and myself have already been accused of being Hoteps so that may fall on deaf ears.

Having said all that, I’m noticing a trend that in the very few Black Science Fiction/Fantasy movies that we get, the love interest is almost always non-Black.

Admittedly, movies like “Black Panther” count as black science fiction, but I’m mostly thinking about the independent films. The films created either by or for “us.”

Speaking of “Us,” I guess Jordan Peele’s films count too. He’s definitely the rare exception that I’ve seen…”Us” featured a beautiful Black couple and cast as a family dynamic.

Oh wait, but wasn’t the love interest in “Get Out”…a white woman?!

To be fair, the love interest being non-Black in “Get Out” was integral to the plot, but I gotta say there is a pattern here.

Another exception may be “Sorry To Bother You.”

While undoubtedly a science fiction film, I wouldn’t necessarily call this one “accessible” to the public. I doubt many people finished the movie once the men with horse dicks appeared on the screen. But it still counts, nonetheless.

One could argue that I’m cherry picking, and you would be right. I’ve purposely left out big budget Hollywood blockbusters. But for every “Black Panther” you could name, I can counter with one myself:

I think my overall point is two-fold:

  1. We don’t get many Black science-fiction films
  2. When we do, they rarely feature a Black lead with a Black love interest.

This is an observation that I’ve made when it comes to LGBT films as well.

Barry Jenkin’s “Moonlight” is an obvious exception, but even then I’ve gone on record to say that whatever that film was about, it wasn’t about love (I’m sorry, getting a handjob on a beach the night before getting a public ass whooping by the same person and then not seeing that person again FOR 10 FUCKING YEARS is not what I consider a “love story”).

Maybe I’m overthinking it. Black creatives in general are not interested in science fiction. The argument that I’ve heard from filmmakers is there are too many real world issues to address to create fantasy worlds and realities.

I understand that thinking, but I always counter that science fiction has historically been the perfect platform to use metaphor for social issues. Some of the greatest sci-fi films ever made are actually morality lessons or related to concerns of the times they were created.