‘Black Panther’ Is Not the Movie We Deserve

I have not personally seen the movie “Black Panther”, but it seems that it is racist to black Americans according to Christopher Lebron. Lebron explains in his article that although the movie is unique for its black star power, it actually shows devaluation of black American men. There is a black American character in the movie who despises the way blacks are treated in American so he returns to wakanda to challenge the throne and start a revolution to change the way things are. However according to Lebron this character is demonized, he states, ” he comes across as the black thug from Oakland hell bent on killing for killing’s sake”. He is basically saying that instead of being seen as a hero or just a good person in general he is demonized simply because he is a black American man. Another opinion he states is that the movie demonizes black Americans to shine a good light on African nobility. Lebron states, ”  The fight takes a shocking turn: T’Challa lands a fatal blow to Killmonger, lodging a spear in his chest. As the movie uplifts the African noble at the expense of the black American man, every crass principle of modern black respectability politics is upheld”. He is basically trying to saying they purposely used a black American as the antagonist to make the african nobels come out as heroes.

A quote that stood out to me was “As the movie uplifts the African noble at the expense of the black American man, every crass principle of modern black respectability politics is upheld“. This stood out to me because just reading his article without seeing the movie I disagree with it. I do not think the directors purpose was to demonize black Americans in any way. I actually agree with the choice of the wakandans in the movie, although killmonger had good intentions he lacked rationality. Had his revolution taken place the entire stability of the nation could have fallen. Their hidden fortune and power would have become known by the world, their very source of wealth and power “vibranium” would have been discovered, among other problems. In my personal opinion I think that it was a regular plot with no intention to demonize blacks anywhere, the wakandans had a very regular and rational reaction to killmongers choices.

Comment ( 1 )

  1. Maximo Martinez Grullon
    I liked your opinion on the quote that stood out to you, since I also agree, that the director of the movie didn't want to demonize African American,from making this movie. I also liked the observation that you made on the fact that it would inmoral and evil for Killmonger to be the hero of the movie, since all he wanted was to arm the black comunities to form a revolution. But one thing that you could have done to improve this post is to add more of Lebron's keypoint or just go into them more, since it sounded like you were just adding a sentence of explenation per quote that you choosed.

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