Black Panther Pride

(Photo by Ian West/PA Images via Getty Images)

You may have noticed that I haven’t posted in a while. A long while. When you plan to take a 6 month blogger break then boom…Black Panther. This movie, these characters, this feeling of pride that has spread like wildfire among our community…this movement, is something I simply can’t sit out for.

I’m not seeing the movie until Monday morning because I literally could not find a show that fit my schedule before then. You guys snatched those tickets up faster than ice water in a dessert lol. But even the inconvenience of having to wait makes me smile because its evidence of the showing up and showing out that we’re doing for a film that is so very worthy of the response.

Black Panther is a superhero film based on the Marvel Comics character of the same name. The flick features a black superhero (Chadwick Boseman), a mostly black cast (Michael B. Jordan, Lupita N’Yongo, Angela Bassett, Danai Gurira, Forest Whitaker), and was conducted by a black director (Ryan Coogler). #MelaninMagic is in full effect.

Wakanda, the African country where the film is set, is fictitious but very much indicative of very real countries that reside on the continent. The struggle to change the perception of Africa from an impoverished violent place to the culturally rich land that it is has been long standing. The film’s star, Chadwick Boseman, shared his view on the subject with CNN.

“Having studied at Howard [a historically black university in Washington D.C.] and having various different experiences within our culture, I knew it was an opportunity to pull from real things, real achievements, real African culture and place it in this movie to make it real.” Boseman said. “If anybody believes that Africa didn’t have an empire, didn’t have architecture, didn’t have art, didn’t have science, you see it in this movie.”

The outpouring of support the film is receiving from African-Americans is something that has become quite significant for a community that has championed for proper representation in film and in media and entertainment as a whole. I liken the effect to what was felt around the world when Barack Obama became the first black President. Seeing is indeed believing. Michael B. Jordan expects to be seeing a few new costumes ideas in October. He told CNN:

“I can’t wait for Halloween to see everyone dressing up as the Dora Milaje [the female special forces in the film], Black Panther and Killmonger [the super villain Jordan portrays].”

Mr. Jordan is making big projections for a movie that has only been in the theaters for a few hours but for some reason I think he’s right.

Have you seen Black Panther yet? What did you think of the film?