I have often asked myself: Why this particular association? And I have come to realize that it is because Black humanity is itself a phoenix: No matter how many times colonizers and white supremacists have tried to destroy our communities, languages, and interior worlds, we have been resilient. Every time the museum comes into view while walking down 14th Street NW, I have the thought that it is like a phoenix rising from the ashes. Known by many as the “Blacksonian,” the museum itself, located in the heart of Washington, D.C., is a significant work of Afrofuturist art, politics, design, and engineering, with its structure mirroring a Yoruba-design crown that looks ready for liftoff. This is not the first time a visitor to the NMAAHC is confronted with the feeling of boarding a spaceship. This article appears in the Summer 2023 print issue of FP. Erik Carter illustration for Foreign Policy Paul Scharre, Stanley McChrystal, Alondra Nelson, and more thinkers on the dawn of a new age in geopolitics.

The on-image text reads: The Scramble for AI. A Foreign Policy magazine cover illustration shows a glowing AI projection figure emerging from a pile of technological machinery and semiconductors.

Download waving checkered flag