Each character gives black audience members the space to find themselves on the big screen, perhaps for the first time in their life.Īt the same time, on the other side of the world, a new television series was premiering in the Philippines. Black people are not relegated to one-sided roles of sidekick, or comic relief, or bad guy, or gangster, or whatever stereotype they are usually cast as. Most importantly, the protagonists are black.
The fictional Wakanda flourishes with its advanced technology, its lack of poverty, and its unapologetic celebration of African culture-a culture that, for the longest time, has been suppressed in America. It’s not hard to see why this is so-in many ways, Black Panther is a love letter to black America by a culture that has constantly been putting it down.īlack Panther envisions an African country that has never been colonized. The movie was highly anticipated by many and quickly established itself as one of the highest-grossing movies in the already successful Marvel franchise.
On Valentine’s Day, thousands of people flocked to their nearest cinemas to see the newest Marvel superhero movie, Black Panther.
