After the long-lasting Black Panther euphoria is over, the abundant harvest has been celebrated with 700 $ M gross making the piece the most successful superhero movie in US history. However, some topics remain scratchy, not about the film, but about the political reaction upon itself. Highlights on segregation by the media, historical racism and political correctness just came along the walk with the idol of the year.
As you might have heard, the plot of the movie turns around a hidden and highly technologically advanced African nation called Wakanda where the king, the Black Panther, rules his people and protect their treasures of the rest of the world. A very well shaped script runs over the story but what concerns us the most is the political shades surrounded by the media coverage and the implied message about the story.
Through the movie, it can be seen white characters literally labeled as colonizers. For example, in one of the scenes where an African artifact is about to be stolen from a fictional British museum, the director of the institute is preached for looting other´s national treasures. Even though that is definitely a fact of the Western World history, why is this guiltless woman currently being blamed for it? This scene summarizes the whole moral implied in the film with a complete lack of reaction on the audience.
In order to understand this matter, it should be highlighted that concepts like colonization, slavery, and looting cannot be adhered to white people since this will be a racist generalization. In the past, these oppressive models were part of almost all civilizations – it does never justify – but it was sadly part of the steps to fight in order to reach the actual democratic system.
Now, why is this name-calling a problem? I personally do not think that in cinema any depiction of any type should be a problem since in art, at least to me, anything is valid. The name-calling is not a problem, the double standard is. How would people react if the black community would be blamed for historical facts or demonized stereotypes? The film turned into a flag for the black justice movement, which in my opinion, white-shaming current individuals based on their ancestor’s does not lead to any progress in our current society.
Racial politics and political correctness have taken part along the success of the film. The media has described this film as the rise of the black community in an oppressive Hollywood. Description that definitely contrasts to the dozens of black highlights in cinema history. In the other hand, critics have claimed to be censored by Rotten Tomatoes portal by being taken down on negative reviews using “hate speech” as an excuse; which based on the fact that this film has a higher score than Gone With The Wind (1939), it is not difficult to believe. All in all, while the crowd enjoys the film, media coverage and a very homogenous opinion about the topic tell us that there is something wrong, not with the film, but with the society.
What brings this article up is that the film definitely shows some subtle shades of racial hostility which would have never been forgotten if the roles were the opposite. Moreover, as a result of a suppressive activism, the negative reaction remains unheard. This film is a total must-watch and I am not afraid to say so, what I am afraid of is, that in the future, if I do not like a black film, I might not be able to say it.
You know what they say; political correctness is fascism pretending to be manners.