Caprica and "Mojo"

In her essay, "The Social Optics of Race",  Lisa Nakamura makes the point that the use of black and white in science fiction films such as "The Matrix" serves the role of legitimizing white technology by using black "mojo" to essentially sell it as "cool".  In doing so, it often takes the form of white mastery and black subservience to said technology.  In a nutshell, black helps back up the claims, but can't actually be in control of white technology (pg 109).

 To illustrate Nakamura's point, I'd like to examine the science fiction show "Caprica", or at least the first few episodes that have been aired to date.  In "Caprica", we bear witness to a technologically advanced Earth-like world, far, far, away.   On Caprica, the technology being used includes virtual reality, robots, and flying cars, with some older technology sprinkled in to give it an authentic look (after all, it can't ALL be high tech, right?).

Setting the stage for Nakamura's argument are two opposing classes of people and technology.  The Graystone's, representing the rich, elite, and white technology owners and the Adama's, which are essentially a group of non-white, lower class, organized crime types who have the "mojo".

The deaths of family members from a terrorist bombing brings both Daniel Graystone and Joseph Adama together in a chance encounter.  Soon afterwards, Daniel convinces Joseph to try his technology to see a virtual copy of his dead daughter in a effort to convince him to steal technology from another company.  After viewing a virtual copy of his dead daughter, Adama agrees to steal this technology for Daniel.

Here, we see the point Nakamura was trying to make.  While Adama isn't black, he does represent the "black".  Adama, with his down-to-earth, gritty, gangster family "mojo", legitimizes white technology, while at the same time, remaining subservient to it.   His agreement to steal technology for Adama, in the belief that it can bring his family back to life, underscores Nakamura's argument.