CB Series #1: MCU's Black Panther

Why am I recommending a movie that came out two years ago, you may ask. It was because I didn’t manage to catch it when I came out and I thought it was one of best non-Avengers MCU movie so far. (It’s very hard to decide if Thor Ragnarok or Black Panther was better!)

T'Challa, the King of Wakanda

Following the events of CPT America: Civil War (which I didn't watch LOL), the protagonist T'Challa lost his father, King T'Chaka, at an attack at a UN conference. T'Challa is next in line to be crowned the King of Wakanda, but not before a rescue operation for women and girls who were victims of what appeared to be a human trafficking attempt.

Wakanda

In contrast to the newscaster's description of Wakanda earlier in the movie, we see that Wakanda is extremely advanced, in part thanks to the abundance of vibranium in the land. In addition, T'Challa's sister, Shuri, is a scientist who has developed many technologically advanced gadgets in Wakanda, and also responsible for the design of T'Challa's Black Panther costume.

Erik Kilmonger

The scene cuts to The British Museum where we are introduced to the antagonist Erik Kilmonger. While being introduced to African artefacts by a member of the museum staff, Kilmonger promptly corrects her about the vibranium that originated from Wakanda, while making an ominous reference about how everything in the museum was stolen for the white man's profit. 

"How did you think your ancestors got these? You think they paid a fair price? Or did they take it, like they took everything else?"

They did not get far into the conversation before the museum staff gets poisoned, and a disguised man named Klaue breaks in to steal the vibranium artefact.

It was later revealed that the reason Kilmonger knew so much about Wakanda was because he was the cousin of T’Challa. Born to T’Chaka’s brother and an American woman, he was brainwashed into wanting Black supremacy over the world to avenge the oppressed Black communities around the world. He used Klaue to locate Wakanda so he could reclaim the throne from T’Challa.

White Colonialism

Back in Wakanda, T'Challa, Okoye, Nakia and the Border Tribe were devising a plan to capture Klaue. Klaue had been stealing vibranium technology from Wakanda multiple times and selling it off for a high price. This posed a risk of Wakanda being discovered, and by extension, invaded by other superpowers and having their work, their technology appropriated. T'Challa, Okoye and Nakia manage to track Klaue down in Busan, where they meet Agent Everett Ross. Ross was also after Klaue, except with the intention of locating Wakanda for its resources.

Ross would later be wounded by Kilmonger’s men when the latter came for Klaue, and be brought back to Wakanda for treatment as T'Challa said he could not just allow him to die. Ross eventally joined forces with T'Challa to protect Wakanda from Kilmonger’s forces (more about this later).

Contesting the Throne by Ritual Combat

In Wakanda, it was a tradition to open up the floor to anybody who wishes to contest the throne by fighting the heir. Before T'Challa's coronation ceremony, he was contested by M'Baku, leader of the Jabari tribe. Man did he have heartburning grievances. He felt that technological advances in Wakanda was leaving traditions behind.

Upon killing Klaue, Kilmonger arrives in Wakanda to challenge T'Challa to a duel. Kilmonger wins due to his years of combat experience in wars and ursurps the throne from T’Challa, forcing the latter’s family out of the nation. There on, T’Challa and his family need to remove Kilmonger from power before he seizes Wakanda’s technology to wage war on the world.

Thoughts

What compelled me to see the movie was due to the inital controversy surrounding it, about it being anti-white/pro- black supremacy. I was 100% that the movie probably had nothing at all to do with race politics and that white conservatives were just angry because they couldn't stand that black people were in the spotlight. 

I was wrong- not about the fact that the movie’s detractors were wrong, but about the fact that the movie did not address race politics. It did, just not in the way expected.

The tropes about black pride (read: supremacy!), and to hell with white people! and all white people are racist! that compelled detractors to boycott the movie, were in fact represented by the antogonist. T'Challa, while sharing the same guardedness against colonialisers, acted out of self-preservation.

T'Challa and Erik ended up on opposing sides precisely because they each responded differently to the same oppression. I think we can all agree that all racial minorities are disadvantaged in some way. There has been however a large range of responses to this oppression, and we cannot deny that extremists exist. 

This is why terror groups exist- ISIS, incels like Elliot Rodger etc- they have been (or felt) marginalised and have chosen the radical way to get even with society. It is rather telling that in the ending scene, T’Challa and Nakia set up a Black Outreach Community Centre in a city in the states to support members of the black community that was in need. That we should never respond to violence with more violence and wage war against our oppressor “enemy”, but empower the oppressed minorities. Activism does not need to involve making an enemy out of the oppressor, but should be done with the interests of the community you are helping.

What we see in T'Challa, however, is not only a rejection of such extremist responses to black oppression. T'Challa also represents a progressive leader in a society who wants to reconcile technological progress with those who want to retain tradition (i.e. the Jabari tribe).

A second thing people were pissed with Black Panther about were that they thought these black characters were idealised, deliberately made more powerful than the Avengers is "unrealistic", just done to pander to some SJW audience. (Trust me, I actually went to find out what they were saying for this blog post. I wish I put in this much effort working out) 

This is the Marvel Cinematic Universe, a series of movies about humans with superpowers, but it’s black people being smart and developed that they have a problem with! Humans can fly but black people not being primitive cannibals is reason why this film is "unrealistic". Just let that absurdity sink in for a moment. 

Co-incidentally, these were the same arguments that surfaced when the conservative population were talking about why CPT Marvel was anti-men, some Youtubers having even made tens of videos about it. It is very strange because while Black Panther did address some of these sensitive subjects, nobody even said CPT Marvel was a feminist movie?! Aside from maybe TWO feminist references and the fact that it premiered on 8 March, the whole movie was about the dangers of believing in only one narrative. Carol Denvers (aka CPT Marvel) was a USAF pilot enslaved and brainwashed by the Kree to think the Skrulls were the villians when the Kree only wanted to harvest her energy to destroy the Skrulls who were rising against their oppressors. And of course she was more powerful than Thor, because like Scarlet Witch, she obtained her powers directly from one of the infinity stones!

I wonder if they are also triggered by Thor: Ragnarok for featuring an all-woman army called the Valkyrie? Or will they be triggered by a Chinese MCU superhero called “Shang-Chi” and nickname him “Virus Man”? I like the Valkyrie, Dora Milaje and CPT Marvel because I see myself in them. I want to see women on the screen placed in the frontlines of combat without a secondary responsibility placed on them to be seen as romantic prospects for the male characters in the movie. Woman combatants are commonly portrayed on screen as jokes, there to look cool but ultimately to serve the purpose of protagonist's girlfriend, or just some token characters that are "allowed" to wield swords and guns in the name of equality but when shit hits the fan better get out of the way and let the men handle the situation. It's okay if you cannot relate to what I am saying, because my point is that if representation is something that has never even had to occur to you, you are incredibly fortunate. 

On Black Panther and SJW-ism

As young people, we all want to do something about the cracks in society. Choosing a cause is easy, it is taking action that is challenging, and the biggest contributor to that challenge is choosing who to align with.

When I was in uni, I cannot count how many times I have been prepositioned by "feminist groups" or at least, groups claiming to be feminist, trying to recruit me. They tell me it would be refreshing to have my perspective as a military woman (presumably they got all this info from my comments around FB and my blog). What stopped me from joining any of them was the fact that I know who the individuals in those groups are, and I know that they also hawk certain narratives I don't necessarily want to be associated with. I declined all their inivitations, started a new FB account and deleted some of my blog entries.

Activist groups target the passion young people have, make us feel like they value our voice (like they did with me using the "military woman" angle) to recruit us. I am not denying they all had good intentions at first, but you need to understand who the people in it are, what they do and what else they represent outside of that specific cause. Last point seems irrelevant but it will spill into their interactions with you and play a part in how they influence you. 

At least by joining a proper NGO, you can trust that the organisation has certain degrees of checks and balances that prevent its members from going off into the extreme. Random “activists” and communities on the internet may not.

Social activism is not an easy road. They are not the people posting constantly about issues on Facebook and Twitter just so they can admire the likes on their post. They are not the people who only come out from under the bed when an issue pisses them off enough to write about it (like me for example). They do real ground work, understanding what their beneficiaries need through engagement and working to provide that (not just “raising awareness”, throwing money at their target audience or through meaningless gestures that offer no concrete help).

And for that reason, I believe that activism is not for every young person. You are not one just because you are passionate about something, you need to be properly mentored at a sufficiently mature age and be well-informed about the multiple dimensions of your own cause. It should stem from the desire to help, not a desire to get back at.

Everyone wants to be T'Challa, but a some have gone the path of Erik Kilmonger.

For those who somehow missed Black Panther when it came out in 2018, I highly recommend it.