The Black Panther film raises issues that are currently present in our everyday lives. Racial injustice, colonization and imperialism, and globalization are current issues and policies that are being discussed all around us. Black Panther comes at a time when although these issues are present, there is actually a very little discussion about the problems and potential solutions.
The issue of racial injustice is brought up by Killmonger throughout the film. He has watched his whole life as people have suffered and been held back and he wants to use violence to rectify these issues within society. T'Challa and all of Wakanda represent a closed off but proud and traditional society. Wakanda is the picture of injustice and peace and the main issue between many of the characters in the film is that Wakanda stays closed off. They do not offer aid to others who are suffering around the world because of the fear that they will be changed if the world knows about them.
Colonization and the effects of it are also mentioned in the film. When Killmonger goes to the British Museum to retrieve a Wakandan artifact as he is speaking with the curator for the objects he confronts her about how the museum got the objects in the first place. During colonization artifacts from countries like Africa were taken by those European or American powers who came into the country. This is a huge issue for museums around the world today, and many countries cultures are asking for objects which were looted from them to be repatriated.
Black Panther is an important film because it raises social issues present in our society and gives us the inspiration or motive to ask questions and begin conversations, to not only understand these issues but to become a part of a solution instead of a bystander.
Rebecca, I found myself surprised by how much I agreed with one of your remarks -- that we aren't really discussing a lot of solutions to the problems of globalization and the historical legacies of slavery and colonization. At first I thought that wasn't true, but then I realized that the corrections proposed for current injustices all too often seem like they merely chip away at the edges of a problem. Perhaps if we had more "Wakanda" in the world, and in our media, we might have more CREATIVE solutions to local and global problems. If popular culture can do any good, it's in helping people sketch out alternative futures. The apparent backwardness of the British Museum (as it's presented in the film, in any case) seems to symbolize just how impoverished our thinking is. Thanks for your thoughts!
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