Wakanda Forever

*Spoiler Alert*

Let us first say “If you have not seen Black Panther, go see it”! With that being said, how did you feel about the movie? Not the hype around it, not the numbers, not the cultural movement behind it, but the actual storyline of the movie? There were many messages within the film that pointed out oppression and being renounce by your own people. The antagonist, Killmonger, was deserted by his family after his uncle killed his father. He lived the “African American” life while in the back of his mind he knew that in Wakanda, his family ruled. He made it a mission to do anything to get to Wakanda and obtain the throne. He fulfilled his mission but the anger he accumulated over the years was his ultimate downfall.

In this movie, as a black person, I relate the antagonist because although he is filled with rage. I understand living in a world that treats you less than, where you have to work harder than your counterparts of a different race to get to the same place as them, to be seen as violent, a thief, a criminal, and to be constantly brushed off when you bring attention to it. I understand not knowing your roots and being lost because not only are you viewed as unequal in the country you were born in but also unacquainted with the country that your ancestors were born to.

With that being said, lets dive in the goal of the antagonist. Killmonger knew that Wakanda had a powerful source that would help the entire world. He wanted to use it to help his people, people who looked like him, black people. But would life be different if your race was in power? Now of course, we all believe so because it would be different for individually but would it be different from an overall view? Think about each race in society today. Various people of different races from different countries all have their own problems and their own evils but how many are able to be truly themselves where they reside?

The colonizers are currently in those decision maker roles. They create laws that would positively affect them while negatively affecting everyone else. In other words, they are looking out for their own race and hide it under the excuse of it being good for America and/or the greater good. This excuse works because many people are confused about the anger and frustration that people like me have. We were stolen from our land, stripped of our culture, and placed in this new society where we were to work for the colonizers. Though things have changed in society since when we were first stolen, that does not mean we are healed. Many black people, not just American, mentalities are diluted with lies that are inferior to the colonizers. Many black people know nothing of their history besides slavery. Many black people believe that they are only meant to be criminals because that is how other view and treat them. These are beliefs of people who I talk to on a regular basis. When I read and/or hear people’s confusion about our anger and about our joy towards the movie Black Panther, it reiterates that we are still not seen as equal in society because the color of our skin. In Killmonger's case, he felt that there was a way out, Wakanda. But the people of Wakanda, his family, abandoned him so he felt justified in his actions.

If Killmonger and Wakanda were not a fictional, do you think that the world would treat us the same as the colonizers? Do you think they would readily allow us to be owners of their large corporations, be majority in these boardrooms, make up the majority of congress, etc.? If we had a powerful source that would help the entire world, do you believe that will share their privilege? Have they given it up as of 2018? I’ll keep my opinion of that and watch what happens in the sequel.