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Why 'Black Panther' Is a Defining Moment for Black America
Ryan Coogler’s film is a vivid re-imagination of something black Americans have cherished for centuries
By Carvell Wallace
Marvel Comics’s Black Panther was originally conceived in 1966 by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby, two Jewish New Yorkers, as a bid to offer black readers a character to identify with...
Twitter reported that “Black Panther” was one of the most tweeted-about films of 2017, despite not even opening that year.
We've had "defining moments" in media before, which is why I largely have a "We've been here before" feeling about Black Panther. As giddy as everyone is over Black Panther, I just keep feeling, "We've been here before."
We greeting "Shaft" with as much expectation, and as the article points out, the same was true of "Roots"--which by reaching 51 percent of households, had more of a nation-wide impact than does Black Panther.
But as LeVar Burton said about those expectations then, no sea-change occurred from those films, at least not alone.
There is a difference, though, and one I hope makes a difference. The audience environment is different this time. Before, we were still dealing with a generation that had grown up in apartheid, and I realize now that our generation will not change...we will have to die off.
But Black Panther is happening in a generation that is effectively from a whole different planet from ours. Maybe this time will be different.
Or you can look at it and say... meh. But you'd be instantly branded a racist like you did if you criticized Obama when he got thrown at us. And " Get Out" which was almost completely based on a gimmick ending and left you wondering just how it got such universal rave reviews when it never seemed to be more than a throwback to 1970s cult psi horror. Which is fine. But they never tried to be Oscar worthy. And the others.... pedos and a gill man love story. Are they serious?
So we get movies that push whatever social message we're supposed to embrace and we had better embrace it... or else. Be it about race, sexuality, the environment, or some social issue that's time has come. Folks, Hollywood is a stagnant cess pool and is absolutely the last place you'd go to find a movie that has a story or a message, let alone artistic meaning. And if you can find an independent film maker that has that, you can bet Hollywood would ignore it or try to squash it or co opt it for whatever $$$ they can make from it .
So write this Oscar Season off yet again with a luke warm stable of preachy films and a fast failing and declining number of actors. Maybe they can generate some controversy over who or what got snubbed this year and then next year will be their moment to shine. Yawn. Been there, done that, just don't feel like watching it.
As a black man, I think it's silly the level of praise Black Panther has been getting for the sense of it "defining Black America". It's a freakin Marvel movie about fictional characters in a fictional city in Africa.
I wish us black people would spend more time motivating and educating ourselves to do better as a race than blindly praise and give all of our money to a movie by a company owned by rich white people. I always have to chuckle when a black person acts like this movie is opening doors to us when it's not doing a thing for us here in reality. Wakanda doesn't exist.
Saw it yesterday. I thought it very entertaining and well made. A couple of obvious, but palatable messages. Nothing particularly deep. All in all, a fine Marvel effort.
However, I agree some folks are thinking a bit too much about it.
As a black man, I think it's silly the level of praise Black Panther has been getting for the sense of it "defining Black America". It's a freakin Marvel movie about fictional characters in a fictional city in Africa.
I wish us black people would spend more time motivating and educating ourselves to do better as a race than blindly praise and give all of our money to a movie by a company owned by rich white people. I always have to chuckle when a black person acts like this movie is opening doors to us when it's not doing a thing for us here in reality. Wakanda doesn't exist.
As a white guy who often watches films with all or mostly black casts, I think there is a difference here. Most black-cast films have been relatively low budget, in part because the thought was that white audiences would not swell the box office receipts. Here you have what is essentially an all-black and all-black-themed film drawing in a large white audience, and swelling box office revenues to over a billion dollars. To put it crassly, money talks. And with several successes behind them, I don't think the Chadwick Boseman and Michael B. Jordan are going to continue to be seen as "black actors", but rather as "actors".
And I'll tell you why this isn't the same as "Roots" (although I do feel that "Roots" had more of an impact than a previous poster mentioned). I was in my 20s when I watched "Roots". The experience cost me zero dollars and zero cents. Here we have white folks plunking $20 bucks down to watch "Black Panther", and if it's a date that $40 or more, or if it's a family lots more $$$. That really hasn't happened on a large scale before. A little with Sidney Poitier and a very few other black actors, but I do think this is different.
I'm glad to see it, but I never thought I'd see a black president in my life time, and I never thought I'd see an essentially all-Black cast movie breaking a billion dollars.
As a white guy who often watches films with all or mostly black casts, I think there is a difference here. Most black-cast films have been relatively low budget, in part because the thought was that white audiences would not swell the box office receipts. Here you have what is essentially an all-black and all-black-themed film drawing in a large white audience, and swelling box office revenues to over a billion dollars. To put it crassly, money talks. And with several successes behind them, I don't think the Chadwick Boseman and Michael B. Jordan are going to continue to be seen as "black actors", but rather as "actors".
And I'll tell you why this isn't the same as "Roots" (although I do feel that "Roots" had more of an impact than a previous poster mentioned). I was in my 20s when I watched "Roots". The experience cost me zero dollars and zero cents. Here we have white folks plunking $20 bucks down to watch "Black Panther", and if it's a date that $40 or more, or if it's a family lots more $$$. That really hasn't happened on a large scale before. A little with Sidney Poitier and a very few other black actors, but I do think this is different.
I'm glad to see it, but I never thought I'd see a black president in my life time, and I never thought I'd see an essentially all-Black cast movie breaking a billion dollars.
But that's just me.
As I said earlier the difference is this:
Black Panther is happening in a generation that is effectively from a whole different planet from the Boomer generation. Maybe this time will be different.
As a white guy who often watches films with all or mostly black casts, I think there is a difference here. Most black-cast films have been relatively low budget, in part because the thought was that white audiences would not swell the box office receipts. Here you have what is essentially an all-black and all-black-themed film drawing in a large white audience, and swelling box office revenues to over a billion dollars. To put it crassly, money talks. And with several successes behind them, I don't think the Chadwick Boseman and Michael B. Jordan are going to continue to be seen as "black actors", but rather as "actors".
And I'll tell you why this isn't the same as "Roots" (although I do feel that "Roots" had more of an impact than a previous poster mentioned). I was in my 20s when I watched "Roots". The experience cost me zero dollars and zero cents. Here we have white folks plunking $20 bucks down to watch "Black Panther", and if it's a date that $40 or more, or if it's a family lots more $$$. That really hasn't happened on a large scale before. A little with Sidney Poitier and a very few other black actors, but I do think this is different.
I'm glad to see it, but I never thought I'd see a black president in my life time, and I never thought I'd see an essentially all-Black cast movie breaking a billion dollars.
But that's just me.
Most of Black Panther doing well is advertising. But black casted/led movies have been doing well for the last 20 years. Movies like Shaft, to Blade, to the Friday movies, Bad Boys, Men in Black, etc etc. The media has been up-playing the race card with Black Panther, which is why it's getting so much praise. It's a really good movie, but we have to remember this isn't some black revolution movie, it's just a comic book movie. Comparing Roots to Black Panther is strange because Roots was based on an actual event whereas Black Panther is complete fiction.
Also, I never really looked at a movie with the race of the movie. I just saw a movie because it's good. Seeing a movie with a black cast breaking a billion never was something I'd thought I'd never really see. But I also grew up in a different generation than you did.
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