Memories of Resistance: Rhizomatic Education, the Matrix, and Rondo

Abstract

Memories of Resistance: Rhizomatic Education, the Matrix, and Rondo Benjamin Levy (bio) Remembering becomes particularly important for those who hold socially dominated identities, those for whom memory and complete recitations of pasts are often rare—as they are stripped by those who stand within dominant positions. Just as important as remembering itself is how we string together our memories, how we prioritize information. It is with this that we must be doubly cautious as our relationships with technology grow deeper, as realities we create outside of digital space and those created within grow closer and closer. There is potential to use technology as a catalyst for engaging more deeply with our memories, but just as there is potential for this, there is potential for technology to entrench harm. The combined use of new media, particularly the internet, and rhizomatic educational structures can allow for the creation, and perpetuation, of memories of resistance that can be engaged to highlight the life, brilliance, and complexity of Black communities in Saint Paul, Minnesota, and, taking a broader lens, peoples whose pasts have been violently destroyed by white supremacist structures of power. Rhizomes and The Matrix: Exploring Afrofutures As described by Kodwo Eshun, a Ghanaian-British author and filmmaker, Afrofuturism is a movement of art, literature, theory, and more that centers Black people, people of the African diaspora, and layers the past and present— violence, joy, and all knowledge/experience—in order to critically imagine futures through the use of technologies. [1] Rhizomes as memories of resistance provide a powerful framework through which one can unpack Afrofuturist thought. Within rhizomatic educational frames, as provided by Shujaa and Gregoriou, one intentionally layers the past into the present in order to construct more complete realities to establish the conditions necessary for memories of resistance. The Oracle in The Matrix takes this and demonstrates the way in which something, someone, that exists within conditions of oppression can bring about the destruction of the system through the engagement of rhizomatic education in technological contexts. The Oracle: Engaging Rhizomatic Education and the Present Future [2] Core to the efficacy of this examination of memory generation in the context of media is the movement of analysis between spaces of traditional “social reality,” as provided by the work of Morrison and Shujaa, and digital spaces—as to blur the lines between the two is to emphasize their inextricable nature. The realm of media offers a layered representation of these processes through the analysis of The Matrix and the role of the Oracle therein, grounding the theory discussed above. Within this there are several things to unpack: (1) the representation and construction of the Oracle [End Page 25] as a Black woman, (2) the role of the Oracle in engaging education in order to challenge what is perceived as factual or “real,” and (3) the potential of the Oracle in creating memories of resistance. A core character in the Matrix franchise, the Oracle is a program, core to the function of the Matrix itself, that has the power of foresight. [3] In the first Matrix film, the Oracle is portrayed by Gloria Foster, an older Black woman. [4] Although this may have simply been in line with concerted efforts made in the 1980s and `90s to increase non-white representation in media, and in all facets of US life for that matter, the impact of a Black woman fulfilling the role of a character so transformational in the franchise, regardless of the intent of her assuming the role, is felt. However, the importance of her representation can only be understood in its entirety when one has a grasp on the function of the Oracle within the Matrix. First introduced after Morpheus instructs Neo to visit her, the Oracle makes clear her power of foresight by consistently asking Neo questions that force him to reckon with the formation of reality, even in a space as small as the kitchen they are in: “Would you still have broken the vase if I hadn’t said anything? Do you think you are the one?” [5] Through this, one can understand the purpose of the Oracle— to force Neo and Morpheus to question the very nature...