BLACK PANTHER
https://claytoonz.com/2018/02/20/black-panther/
Conservatives are easily triggered. Black president? Triggered. Black people protesting against police brutality? Triggered. Black History Month? Triggered. Black superhero movie? Oh hell yeah.
Ben Shapiro, the editor of the right-wing site Daily Wire, has his tighty-whities in a bunch over Black Panther, the latest addition to the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU, if you’re a geek).
Shapiro doesn’t understand why Blade, starring Wesley Snipes, or Catwoman, starring Halle Berry, wasn’t enough for black people. I’m surprised he didn’t mention Action Jackson, or B-movie blaxploitation films, like Shaft (a bad mother…), or even Blackula.
Black Panther is a pretty big deal, not just for black people, but for reality. While it is a fictional story about a fictional person in a fictional country, it points out the reality that black people throughout the world aren’t just a part of society, but are major contributors to humanity. It’s also the first major studio film with a predominantly black cast and a black production team.
Shapiro tried sarcasm and humor, but those aren’t traits conservatives possess. He wrote, “We’ve heard it’s deeply important to millions of black Americans, who, after all, were not liberated from slavery 200 years ago, and liberated by the civil rights movement with federal legislation, and have not been
gradually restored to what always should have been full civil rights in the United States. None of that has mattered up until they made a Marvel movie about a superhero, who is black, in a country filled with black people.”
He added, “This is the most important moment in black American history, not Martin Luther King, not Frederick Douglass, not the Civil War, not the end of Jim Crow, none of that.” He even pulled Obama into it with, “When Obama was president, we were told it meant everything. And then, it turns out, it didn’t mean anything because we needed Chadwick Boseman to somehow make sure that black people felt accepted in American society, because a bunch of white executives at Marvel green-lit a film about black people in a fictional country in Africa.
Quite frankly, I’m kinda surprised he didn’t refer to Wakanda as a shithole country (thinking of that made me add it to the cartoon…after I had already sent it to my clients).
I think the problem here is that these people have a problem with black people feeling accepted in this country. But then again, this is a country that was upset a couple years ago over a Cheerios commercial that featured an interracial couple. It’s also the nation that elected Donald Trump.
This is pretty cool though. Now children can see portraits of a president and a first lady who looks like them. Some white people are upset they only get 43 out of 44.
Now, children can watch a superhero that looks like them, save the world, and soon, fight alongside Iron Man, Thor, Captain America, and The Hulk. Why can’t black kids geek out as much as white kids? Or in my case, white adults?
In the past, the best black society could find representing them in a major release was the cool sidekick, like Lando Calrissian. Lando was smooth, in charge of a cloud city, and wore a cape. He was vital enough to blow up the second Death Star, but not important enough to get his own Wookie. He had to settle for some space fish boy as his co-pilot.
Personally, I’m looking forward to seeing Black Panther. I have high expectations (some MCU movies are great while others are mere mehs).
After attacking the movie, the Shapiro’s Daily Wire claimed Black Panther is actually a conservative movie. Other people are using it to stoke racial violence by making false claims of racial violence.
White racists have taken to Twitter to claim they’ve been attacked by African-Americans while attending the movie. Seriously. I’m shocked they didn’t claim they were beaten up by little girls while viewing Wonder Woman.
Conservatives aren’t happy with diversity. They accuse people protesting police violence of being terrorists. They want black athletes protesting during the national anthem to shut up (which is actually how they are protesting).
Maybe conservatives, these people who tried to delegitimize our first black president, should try shutting up. Buy some popcorn and check out the movie.
Just don’t sit next to me.
