#brotherfromanotherplanet

The cult classic Afro-futurism film Brother from another Planet (1984) directed by John Sayles captures the trials and tribulations of a black alien escaping from his home planet to the foreign streets of New York City. During the film, the “Brother” encounters many obstacles which portray his isolation as a literal “alien” proving to be reminiscent of the immigrant experience in America, especially today, amongst Trump’s reign.

The Brother arrives at Ellis Island, which has historically been a gateway for millions of immigrants coming to the “Land of the Free”. Upon arrival, New York seems almost apocalyptic, as the Brother is welcomed by desolation rather than the usual collage of people, immediately capturing the isolation of his status as an “alien”. It is not until he walks the streets of Harlem, where he sees any signs of life, as he is surrounded by similar looking black faces engaging in their everyday lives. However, the Brother has limited contribution to such a scene due to his inability to communicate because of his muteness, which resonates with the ‘voicelessness’ of immigrants in America. But despite this voicelessness, the Brother still remains an active part of his environment as he still manages to navigate through his situations day by day.

Throughout the film, the Brother is being hunted down in what seems to be an intergalactic slave chase, as two white men claiming to be from the government are determined to capture him. I can’t help to be reminded of the government today trying to hunt down immigrants entering the country in hopes for a better life, as perhaps the Brother was seeking too. Therefore, the Brother from another Planet must be remembered for its portrayal of the intertwining of race, class, and immigrant status, all which have remained prevalent in America’s history, even in the year 2017. As the entertainment website The A.V. Club reviewed in 2003, the Brother from another Planet, ”uses [the Brother’s] alien status as a way of asking who deserves to be called an outsider in a country born of outsiders”, an answer which seems all too real for a black man from outer space. 

In Fanon's piece, "The Fact of Blackness," he discusses a number of things, not the least of which is the fabrication of a black male identity.  He state's, "Below the corporeal schema I had sketched a historico-racial schema. The elements that I used had been provided for me not by “residual sensations and perceptions primarily of a tactile, vestibular, kinesthetic, and visual character,”1 but by the other, the white man, who had woven me out of a thousand details, anecdotes, stories." (Fanon, 84)  In later portions and writings he goes on to discuss the malware intentionally built into this identity that allows for heteronormative white patriarchy to denigrate and control the black man.  This idea is outlined quite explicitly in two scenes within the film, the first the walk through with a man named Virgil and the scene at the end where he kills the white guy at the end.  

The walk through is the result of, one assumes, a heroine injection that causes hallucinations.  In this walk through,Virgil shows him the various results of oppression in the black community within Harlem (drugs, violence, prostitution, etc.)  This can be seen in this scene, informed by the prior scenes as an escape from the oppressive hands of society, be it a way to make ends meet, to dominate others in the community in order to elevate oneself, an attempt to mentally escape through drug use, some combination of those and what ever else people happened to b doing in that scene.  These are all symptoms of internalized oppression, society has created this narrative for black people to follow and as hegemonic culture controls the representation of the other there is little they can do to subvert or even avoid this message. The walk through is meant to keep The Brother from being consumed by this prolific narrative so he may fight to better his community.

Taking this idea and pairing it with the later scene with Mr.Vance, where it is clarified that this 'business man' is a drug dealer and that he got into the business to stay afloat with his legitimate business.  This is almost spoon-feeding the message that white patriarchy has purposefully oppressed the black man in order to benefit monetarily.  The Brother shows the man a vision of the child who overdosed earlier in the film, a this action is met with no sympathy and an attempt at bribery.  Though the metaphorical message is not too difficult to ferret out a piece the viewer might be missing is that in fact the government did purposefully and with full knowledge of the repercussions disseminate crack cocaine to lower income black neighborhoods in order to maintain their cycle of oppression by giving their tools to members of the community to be used against one another and their selves.