Wow the movie was one that I had not watched and was not really sure how I felt about it. I know that it was supposed to show black men and women in a place of power but I felt that it still had many stereotypes in it. For instance the violence that was in the film against their family members. Another thing that I saw in the movie was that some people wanted to destroy people in order to bring themselves up which is something that happens all the time in real life. I feel that anyone in power has had to bring someone else down in order to get there. In the beginning of the film when Black Panther was named King he was stripped of his powers and had to fight for his position as king.
While I do feel that there were some powerful moments n the film it was hard for me to get into the movie and fully understand what was going on in the film. I am not very into violent movies and do not appreciate watching them and to me there was a lot of hate and violence in this particular film.
The debate in the articles to me felt like people were arguing whether or not it was the right portrayal of the Black community or not. I felt that there were compelling arguments and noticed a lot of what was being said I also saw in the movie myself. I think the fact that they had a brother have to kill their brother to keep other people safe was something that did not need to happen and they could have let him live. It could have been like one of the articles said that they could have let him live instead of killing him off in this movie.
Shayla's Blog 
Hi Shayla, I really related to your post. I also found the movie difficult to understand and am not a fan of violent movies. So it was hard for me to really get into. I thought the arguments that praised the portrayal of the black community was convincing but also not all telling. I mean I think it was a step in the right direction that the movie did not show the typical portrayal of how white society can view black lives, but at the same time there was violence against family members in the movie that could have been left out and I feel the portrayal of the black community was not shown in the light of what it is.
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Hey Shayla,
I’m with you about these kinds of movies as far as senseless violence goes. In my post, I mentioned that superhero movies don’t make much sense and Black Panther was no different. I think these movies put in so much violence because that is their selling point. If you think about it, it doesn’t make much sense to attack a man wearing a nearly indestructible suit with spear and fits. As far as the political message, I see you mentioned that it still had racial stereotypes and I agree. Although it highlighted some problems with society nowadays, it also intertwined the roots of those problems in the movie. For example, in one of the articles, the author mentioned that in the original comic, Killmonger went to MIT. This should have been his backstory, not his gangster-like mannerism that he apparently got from Oakland.
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*fists
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I agree that superhero movies don’t make sense. I mean the heroes are supposed to be the good guy stopping the bad guy but in reality isn’t the hero doing just as many violent things as the bad guy? I also agree that the backstory should have been different and stuck more to the original comic series instead of changing it. I think while they were trying to do something good it could have been done more thoughtfully.
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I did feel they tried very hard to make a movie that showed how some of the black community can feel isolated and feel they need to protect themselves but a lot of the violence just went with stereotypes and made it seem that the black community is a violent place. I understand they tried but they need to think about it better
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Hi Shayla,
I haven’t previously watched the movie either so I’m glad I was finally able to! I’ve been wanting to for awhile, but I’ve been so busy, so having it be assigned classwork is pretty cool. 🙂 I felt pretty disappointed with the ending too. I wrote in my post how having them move forward together in the reconstruction of human welfare and unity would have been super impactful. This had the potential to show a powerful mostly-black cast excelling in nontraditional roles (that aren’t founded in stereotypes) and this could have brought some much needed diversity into Hollywood. I was disappointed that it failed to do this at times. I agree that I’m not big into movies that are super violent, so the Marvel movies are a hit or miss with me. Thanks for sharing your thoughts and perspective.
Take care.
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I agree that the ending could have been much different. In so many movies they let people live and come back on the sequel so I am curious what their reasoning was to killing him off and not giving him that opportunity.
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Hey Shayla,
I am right there with you regarding understanding the movie itself. I think i probably read to much into it. I saw some different dynamics regarding black people not be portrayed as maids, slaves, or other stereotypical roles. It was my second time watching it and I didn’t remember the first and I watched it again.
The things that stuck out for me is them living on an island– still not living in mixed neighborhoods and of course it was the blacks who lived on an island versus living inland. I watched quite a bit of shows with mainly black actors and actresses. I think I have gotten comfortable with seeing black people in neighborhoods, portraying police officers, etc.
So this seemed a bit outdated to me. Thank you for your blog sharing your thoughts.
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Super conversation, all. Much thanks for responding to your commenters!
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When commenting less favorable things about Black Panther, yourself and critics definitely didn’t like how they portrayed the only “African-American” (Killmonger). You said, “…some people wanted to destroy people in order to bring themselves up which is something that happens all the time in real life.” Some critics agreed with you and felt like the make-believe “Wakandans” still held superiority over Blacks in a “Black superhero movie” and blacks still felt like second place trying to harm others. This is a perspective I didn’t see at first because I view Killmonger as a hero to African-Americans, but why does their “hero” want to go through war and revenge to achieve this?
Thanks for posting 🙂
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Hi Shayla,
I agree with you that this film was “supposed to show Black Men and Black Women in a place of power” instead I felt disillusioned the ending with Killmongers death and new vested interest from the Black Panther in Killmongers community. I don’t think a Black man had to die for a community to receive acknowledgment and funding of much necessary resources. The articles we read offered varying contrasting points of views which are important to acknowledge because it opened up the conversation for criticism from from the Black community, which is much needed.
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