Black Panther Musings

[davidgillon]

I haven't seen Black Panther, but I was struck by a thought after reading reviews:- what does it say about our world that we have to plain invent a country to show black people as a technological elite equivalent to white superheroes?

Comments

[sovay]

we have to plain invent a country to show black people as a technological elite equivalent to white superheroes?

I think it says that the filmmakers are keenly aware of the history of colonialism and institutional racism and are drawing on decades of Afrofuturism to create a country not where a Black superhero can be just as good as a white superhero, but where the comparison isn't even important. I found this article useful on that front: "It isn't just the idea that black people will exist in the future, will use technology and science, will travel deep into space. It is the idea that we will have won the future. There exists, somewhere within us, an image in which we are whole, in which we are home. Afrofuturism is, if nothing else, an attempt to imagine what that home would be."

[davidgillon]

Two different views:

What might we be

and

What have we taken from you

[syntaxofthings]

Cynical indeed. But a valid thought, having to do with imperialism & all that, I'm sure.

[rmc28]

I think this is something that the original comics writers were actually trying to point out, and I can report that it's something the film completely engages with.

(it is so good, seeeeeeee it)

[davidgillon]

I'm hoping to, if I can get myself organized at some point next week :)