Back to the Future (w/ Jon Shelton)
Movies vs. Capitalism
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Racial Politics of Back to the Future
- The movie 'Back to the Future' portrays the 1980s Hill Valley as degraded compared to the pristine 1950s.
- This aligns with the real-world wave of black mayors in the 1970s during urban fiscal crises, where black leadership was wrongly blamed for pre-existing economic decline due to factors like deindustrialization and wealth migration to the suburbs.
- In the film, the clock tower, a symbol of justice in the 1950s, is depicted as the Department of Social Services in the 1980s under black mayor Goldie Wilson, implying a shift towards welfare politics blamed on black political rule.
- Wilson's platform mirrors the white mayor's from the 1950s, emphasizing 'progress', but is presented negatively in the 1980s context.
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