RJ_Sizzle said:
Oh boy, a lot of hot takes here. I don't think blacks alone put in the money to make this the hit it is. Especially with the foreign total. Also, none of this property is created by anyone of african-american ancestry. The characters are African, hence all the black people. The character is not named Black Panther because he is black, it's a redundancy describing the panther animal. A darker pigment of big cat species that the character's motif is based on. Yes, there's a habit of putting the prefix "black" on some characters to separate them from a white counterpart, but that's another issue. Black people going to see a movie starring black people is not a personal slight made against you. This movie is made for all audiences. Plus, it's a Marvel film, so there's a built-in audience already. The world wasn't ready to give all their money to a superhero film with black leads for the hell of it. Black folks wanted to see a quality superhero flick with a AA lead for a change, and everyone in general wanted to check out a decent flick. It's part of a bigger picture and it's an enjoyable movie to boot. There is no "blacks only" sign under the door. The only racism here is the conditions you're setting this movie up with in your own head. |
Obviously not only black people saw this, a lot of white people suffer from a sense of white guilt as well that were tweeting this movie when it launched, encouraging people to go see it as if it were some major cultural moment. The issue isnt the character - the issue is that the movie was openly advertised and applauded for having a purposefully all black cast and crew. You could not get away with that if it were white. The NBA is mostly black, but it's incidental - that's fine. If the NBA advertised itself as being all black and not primarily black then it would be the same problem.
