Something terrible in the world happens or society slaps minoritized people with yet another unnecessary restriction, and folks respond with something like “Where’s the spaceship; get me out of here!”
It happened again today, when Popular Science published a story about congregating humpback whales near South Africa. “So long and thanks for all the fish,” Twitter users cracked.
Janelle Monae sings the anthem for this sentiment in “Sally Ride” (the song is named for the American astronaut).
Sometimes, as in that song, it’s a sentiment of both escapism and aspiration.
It’s a nod to the comforting idea that the status quo isn’t our native environment, that there’s somewhere in the universe where we belong and thrive, even if that somewhere isn’t here.
And it’s a way of reaching beyond common circumstance to a realm of imagination where liberty is large enough even for those deemed “sinister.” Gloria Anzaldúa once named “those people who would feel at home in El Mundo Zurdo, the left-handed world: the colored, the queer, the poor, the female, the physically challenged [sic].”
The vision of our spirituality provides us with no trap door solution, no escape hatch tempting us to ‘transcend’ our struggle. We must act in the everyday world. Words are not enough. We must perform visible and public acts that may make us more vulnerable to the very oppressions we are fighting against.” —Gloria Anzaldúa, “El Mundo Zurdo: The Vision,” This Bridge Called My Back
A vision of the left-handed world can bring a little respite from the harshness and violence of the right-handed one.
“Whenever we need to be uplifted from or need the courage to face the tribulations of a racist patriarchal world,” that vision can challenge us to do more than merely dream our way out.