By Kristin Munson
Let’s talk “Black Panther.” I’ll be upfront and say I never kept up with the comic series or any Marvel series for that matter. I’m just black and took it upon myself to go see it. On opening night, my people showed up and showed out. I’ve never seen so many dashikis and kente cloths in the city of Atlanta. Black pride was in full effect.
As far as the movie goes, I liked it but didn’t love it. I didn’t see how anyone could be head-over-heels for it just yet, although the graphics were top-notch, the actors played well thought out roles and every black man in the movie looked amazing. I especially loved the female warriors, but I felt like we didn’t see enough of them. Michael B. Jordan’s role was over the top for me. He really illustrated how Africans and African Americans are different.
Africa gets slept on in so many ways, so it was nice to be reminded of how resourceful the continent is. It was also very smart to show how having certain resources divides people. I think kids, especially black kids, have to see this movie.
When I was younger, it was always difficult to find that main character that I related to. I searched in books, on cereal boxes, in movies and shows and even on school posters. There wasn’t enough representation of who I was and who I could relate to in the world. Today, since Barack Obama became president, a lot of that has changed. I now see commercials including not only black actors, but biracial actors in diverse roles. I have more than five shows that I watch that are customized to my young, black and thriving perspective. It’s so important that kids have their on perspectives shown in movies, and Black Panther accomplishes this for us. After the movie, I saw a little boy playing with a Black Panther action figure, and I thought to myself, “This is why I came.” Seeing the inspiration in his face was priceless for me.
In a world where Donald Trump is president and Tomi Lohren calls the black panthers (Beyoncé) “terrorists,” the hype surrounding “Black Panther” is called for. The leader of the free world has put black and brown skinned people at the bottom of his to-do list. Donald Trump has so much control, yet so little control over the people at the same time. I’m sure we all know how he uses social media to troll people and things not to his liking. I expected him to troll this movie (and maybe he did, I recently deleted my Twitter), but it wouldn’t have mattered. If black people feel like a movie is filled with some thing they and their kids can relate to, there’s no stopping us. Donald Trump could’ve tweeted something like, “whoever goes and supports Black Panther gets deported to Wakanda the next day” and black people would have still supported this movie. That’s black pride at it’s finest. I’ve heard a lot of back-and-forth regarding who the money from this movie goes to. Many people acknowledge how the director was black and he got paid and recognized for his job. Others complained how supporting this movie only puts money in the hands of the white man at Marvel.
None of that mattered to me. I’d pay a spider to go see a screen filled with beautiful black people. I will say, there wasn’t a finished quality to this movie and I think that’s why I’m still processing (I stayed seated when everyone else left, don’t worry). Overall, I can’t say it was a bad film. It was a ground-breaking movie that I think liberated people. More importantly, they’re just getting started and I can’t wait for more.
