Exploring the American science fiction horror ‘Stranger Things’ with Bayo Akomolafe’s ‘whiteness’

Using Bayo Akomolafe’s lens, we must first define "Whiteness" not as a racial identity, but as an ontological posture—a way of being in the world. For Akomolafe, Whiteness is the desire for Mastery, Capture, Purity, and Separation. It is the urge to straighten the crooked, pave over the wild, and create a "Universal" reality where everything is safe, categorized, and under control.

From this perspective, Stranger Things is not just a monster movie; it is a story about the collapse of "The Grid" (civilization/Whiteness) and the terrifying, messy entanglement that lies beneath.

Here is an exploration of Hawkins, Vecna, and the Mind Flayer through the philosophy of the Fugitive and the Post-Activist.

1. Henry Creel / Vecna: The Ultimate Agent of Whiteness

At first glance, Henry Creel seems to reject humanity. He hates the "hustle" of his parents, the fake smiles, the suburban routine. He seems to want to "rewild" the world.

However, through Bayo’s lens, Vecna is the apotheosis of Whiteness.

• Obsession with Mastery: Henry does not want to entangle with the world; he wants to dominate it. He views spiders not as companions, but as superior predators to be emulated for their order. His goal is to reshape the world in his image. This is the colonial impulse: to look at a complex ecosystem and say, "I can design this better."

• The Archive of Pain: Vecna does not let people die; he "consumes" them. He keeps their consciousness in his mind palace. This is the ultimate act of Museum-ification—a key trait of Empire. He captures souls, catalogues their trauma, and displays them. He refuses the grace of death (decomposition/compost); he insists on eternal preservation under his control.

• The Individual vs. The Web: While he uses a hive mind, Vecna places himself at the center as the "god." He represents the Hyper-Individual—the Solitary Self that Akomolafe warns against. He creates a world where only his will exists.

2. The Mind Flayer: The Shadow of Assimilation

If Vecna is the General, the Mind Flayer is the Atmosphere of Whiteness.

• Universalism: Akomolafe speaks of Whiteness as a force that wants to make everything the same (Universalism). The Mind Flayer consumes distinct bodies (rats, people) and melts them down into a single, amorphous biomass. It destroys difference.

• The Refusal of Sanctuary: There is no place to hide from the Mind Flayer. It invades the body, the mind, and the memory. It represents the "Empire that never sleeps," the surveillance state that demands total transparency and total access to the self.

• Terror of the "Other": To the citizens of Hawkins, the Mind Flayer is a "monster." But Akomolafe reminds us that "monsters are the face of the climatic." The Mind Flayer is the return of the repressed—it is the storm, the shadows, and the fungal intelligence that the manicured lawns of Hawkins tried to pave over.

3. Jocks vs. Nerds: The Police of "The Grid"

The high school social hierarchy in Stranger Things is a microcosm of the City vs. The Wild.

• Jason Carver (The Jock) as The Guardian of Purity: Jason is not just a bully; he is a deputy of Whiteness. He is obsessed with "safety," "order," and "protecting the town." When the murders start, he leads a mob. Why? Because he cannot tolerate ambiguity. He needs a clear enemy (Eddie/Hellfire Club). His violence is the violence of the State trying to maintain the "purity" of the suburbs against the "satanic" (the unknown).

• Eddie Munson (The Nerd) as The Fugitive: Eddie lives in the "borderlands" (the trailer park, the drug deals, the fantasy games). In Akomolafe’s terms, Eddie is practicing Fugitivity. He refuses the labels of the grid (Jock/Prep). He plays Dungeons & Dragons, a game of becoming other people, of shapeshifting.

• The Panic: The Jocks hate the Nerds because the Nerds embrace the "weird" (the queer, the magical, the non-linear). The Jocks represent the fear of contamination. They are trying to hold the walls of the Empire together, while the Nerds are pointing out that the walls are already leaking.

4. The Upside Down: The "Compost" of Hawkins

Hawkins, Indiana, is the dream of the 1980s: consumerism, malls, nuclear families. It is a "clean win."

The Upside Down is not a separate dimension; it is the Material Unconscious of Hawkins.

• It is sticky, wet, fungal, and dark.

• It is everything that modern sanitation tries to bleach away.

• The Entanglement: In the Upside Down, everything is connected by vines. If you step on a vine here, the hive mind feels it there. This is a twisted version of the ecological reality we deny. We are entangled, but because we have denied that connection for so long, when it returns, it returns as a nightmare (The Shadow) rather than a mother.

Summary: A Decolonial Reading of the Ending

The heroes usually try to "close the gate" (restore the boundary/re-establish the Grid).

However, a "Bayo-esque" reading might suggest that Hawkins cannot be saved by closing the gate. The cracks are necessary. The "Monster" is not just an invader; it is a symptom of a town that has tried to live outside of nature.

• Henry Creel is the danger of trying to control the wild.

• Eleven represents the possibility of staying with the trouble. She doesn't belong to the Lab (Science/Empire) or the Normal World (Suburbs). She is the bridge.

The tragedy of the show, through this lens, is that the characters are fighting to return to "Normalcy" (the 1950s/80s ideal), but Normalcy is the very structure that created Henry Creel. You cannot defeat Vecna by protecting the system that made him. How then? You ask. That is a whole new post which I will explore soon.