* Is entitled "Black Panther" but makes only a nod to the actual Black Panther Party of the 1960s.
* In doing so, deceives the uninformed in its audience about the Party's nature by portraying its only member in the film as a "Killmonger" (the wicked cousin) instead of a community organizer.
* On the one hand, depicts Killmonger's program as arming the world's oppressed against the white colonial status quo that tyrannizes people of color throughout the world.
* But on the other describes him as preparing for that mission by service as a CIA mercenary killing hundreds of those people in Iraq, Afghanistan and other poor countries imperialized by the United States.
* Confronts Killmonger with T'Challa, his good-guy adversary, whose idea of changing the world is charity rather than systemic transformation of what Killmonger correctly perceives (in bell hooks words) as the white supremacist, imperialist, capitalist patriarchy.
* Has T'Challa ally himself with the CIA to defeat the revolutionaries Killmonger has assembled.
* Peoples the movie with "strong black women" whose strength is mostly evident in their machismo -- i.e. in their ability to scowl and kill as heartlessly as their male counterparts.
* Celebrates the film's heroine for allegiance to country above her most intimate relationship.
* Presents a white CIA agent as heroic.
Moreover, any chance of understanding the film's references to colonialism, white supremacy, and the villainous reality of the CIA is further obscured by Black Panther's spectacular visuals -- by 134 minutes of comic book chases, space ship dogfights, explosions, karate displays, knifings, spearings, shootings, fantastic escapes, and magical returns from the dead.
One comes away from the film happy to have seen blacks centralized and celebrated in a Hollywood blockbuster, but having gained very little in terms of understanding the nature of oppression, the robbery that is the essence of colonialism, or the true spirit of the Black Panther Party, of Bobby Seale, Huey Newton, Eldridge Cleaver, or Angela Davis. There is no hint of any Free Breakfast for Children Program, of Black Panther health clinics, or the party's emphasis on food justice. Instead, one identifies Black Panthers as violent Killmongers with utter disrespect for life, women and tradition.
When Roberto Fernandez Retamar gave us his class, he said something else that relates to Black Panther. Though his skin color is as white as my own, he introduced his remarks with the phrase, "I who am more or less black . . ." With those words he reminded us all that, by every account, life began in Africa. So, all of us are more or less black.
In other words, Black Panther is about us all. It can remind us that White Supremacy is a fiction that oppresses every one of us. So is capitalism's patriarchal regime with its seemingly inseparable colonialism, neo-colonialism, and endless resource wars.
The struggle for liberation depicted in Black Panther is incumbent on all of us to join.
Too bad that point wasn't made more clearly.
(Note: You can view every article as one long page if you sign up as an Advocate Member, or higher).
1
1
