An Epiphany

It has been several weeks since my initial viewing of the cinematic blockbuster known as Black Panther. As a Marvel comics fan since childhood, the robust response to the first superhero film featuring a black man that was not an alien (Hancock), vampire (Blade) or a spawn of Satan (Spawn) was refreshing and revolutionary. (Ranker comics posted a list of 59 black comic superheroes) Although Black Panther had made cameo appearances in the Avengers sequels, this feature film was something transcendent, seismic in its cultural representation. Wakanda is a fictitious east African nation replete with the geographical topography of both the ancient and modern yet bereft of the endemic visage of abject poverty, turmoil and pestilence that seems to be the singular optics of the "Dark Continent" when transcribed through the lens of most European documentarians.

I had a visceral reaction to the magnificent tapestry of brilliant tribal insignia, markings and garments to denote the cultural diversity of the indigenous people of the nation. Even the representative combat was a departure from the wholesale tribal warfare that has decimated regions of the continent. While YouTube is crowded with a plethora of putative "deep" analogies and interpretations of the film ranging from Hoteps to the rabidly racist, many seem to overshoot the organic response of many who have viewed the first billion dollar movie featuring a predominantly black cast and the first ever black director.

Black Panther's commercial success has annihilated the myopic, unsubstantiated implicit bias that has impeded the green lighting of projects with a different pattern recognition. But at a very granular level this film portrayed an image to the survivors of the Diaspora of a place that was the antithesis of what many have been led to believe about the cradle of civilization. I distinctly recall a segment of the movie "Boyz in the Hood" where two young boys were chopping it up verbally before they were about to throw hands. (fight) One of the insults hurled was,"At least I'm not an African booty scratcher". This was a 90s film but that flash point was reflective of the disdain inculcated for anything associated with a connection to African descent. There was actually a proposal made by Wesley Snipes in the 90s to bring Black Panther to the big screen. There is a serendipity in the over two decades delay for the premiere of this industry-disrupting film. Under the tumultuous political climate that has accompanied the demagoguery of a political dilettante and the realized or failed expectations of the first black President of the United States, King T'Challa, the powerful women of his kingdom and yes Eric Killmonger resonated on an unprecedented level with indigenous Africans and their forced immigrant cousins. The push back from some has been why would black people in this country be galvanized by a fictional character and kingdom.

The first part of my answer would be to have them read Donald Bogle's book," Toms, Coons, Mulattoes, Mammies and Bucks: An Interpretive History of Blacks in American Films." I would then simply get them to consider the paucity of alternatives that celebrate, although a fictional account, the brilliance, power and majesty of people of color in this country. Selah