The black hero in the cloak of equality

Raina 2021-10-19 10:01:10

It is an indisputable fact that Marvel has swept the commercial film market in recent years. In a white-dominated ideology, superheroes are generally held by Western whites, and other people of color can only be traitors or sidekick. Marvel's commercial calculations are so high that they have reached the level of exhaustive strategies. Today, the world's production company that can successfully shoot superhero movies with blacks as the protagonist is none other than Marvel. Therefore, it can be expected that "Black Panther" will be as successful as other Marvel movies. Under the sign of black superhero movies, many people believe that "Black Panther" helps promote racial equality. It seems that when audiences all over the world regard black heroes as their idols, the racial divide can be broken, and the stereotype of blacks will disappear. But please don't forget that packaging conservative stories with progressive issues is a masterpiece of heroic movies in recent years. The Dark Knight Rises seems to be a story of proletarian disobedience, but it turns out that it was only fanned by the villains, with damage or construction, but the capitalist Batman maintained social stability. "Thor 3" constructs a strong female image, which is enough to destroy a male hero, but she can only be a villain, consolidating men's fear of strong women. Similarly, the black imagination in "Black Panther" is not as good as imagined. The following spoiler "Black Panther" starts with a royal dispute in Wakanda, an African country. Wakanda possesses a large amount of rare vanadium metal, and the government uses it to develop superb technology, leading the world. In order to avoid hunting other countries, Wakanda shows people as a poor agricultural country, and usually hides its land in the grasslands of Africa with high-tech, isolated from the world. In order to protect the interests of the people, the emperors of the past dynasties tried their best to hide their strength and avoid contact with the outside world. However, some members of the royal family believed that the government was too conservative. With Wakanda's wealth and technology, it could go to war against the white world and save the black compatriots from the dire straits, without escaping from the world. The Wakanda government only saves itself and ignores other African countries and blacks. It is too conservative. The royal family split up and fought for the throne. It is true that Wakanda has advanced technology and a strong country and strong people. It has greatly broken the African image constructed by mainstream Hollywood movies such as "Blood Diamond". Africans are not weak in the past, and can only wait for Western whites to conquer or save. On the contrary, the American agent Ross in the film was injured, also relying on Wakanda The cutting-edge technology cures. The binary opposition that blacks are weak and whites are strong is broken. Although Wakanda in the film is still full of exotic symbols such as tribal totems, African music, tattoos, and exotic clothes, the film at least affirms the image of blacks in terms of material, technology and personal ability. But when we carefully interpret the image of the villain, we will find that the devil is in the details. The main conflict of the film comes from the foreign policy of the royal family's orthodox and heretical figures. The villains are naturally heretics. They believe that Wakanda should use wealth and technology to connect other African countries with blacks and fight against whites. These claims are obviously pan-African. Their leader N'Jadaka advocates violence against whites. It seems to be based on Malcolm X, the black civil rights leader. The characters in the film who advocate equal rights for blacks are reappeared as bloody people. They can only fight for equal rights by violent means, and even attempt to invade other countries and establish black power. These negative images have greatly questioned the legitimacy of the black movement. Those who put forward these claims are even more unorthodox members of the royal family, who further vilified the blacks who pursue equality from the perspective of pedigree. The protagonist and decent character of the movie is the Emperor Wakanda T'Challa, who cooperates with the white people, and his enemy is N'Jadaka who intends to seize the throne and attack the white people. Such a setting cleverly puts the white man and the protagonist on the same line, and the protagonist and the enemy are indirectly safeguarding the inherent rights of the white man. In other words, only black people who have diplomatic skills, can make friends with white people, and enter the white system (United Nations) are good people, and the rest are excluded. T'Challa’s girlfriend, Nakia, is a "Left Glue" character who upholds universal values ​​and loves tolerance. He believes that Wakanda is a hugely rich and should accept refugees and save the disadvantaged. However, T'Challa refuses to protect the national interest. Protectionism and isolationism (insinuation of Donald Trump?). The end is, T' Challa abandoned the isolation policy and decided to assist disadvantaged blacks overseas, but the first step turned out to be bureaucratic policies such as the establishment of cultural exchange agencies in the United States, rather than directly helping the disadvantaged. For thousands of years, Wakanda has been isolated from the world in order to avoid Western colonists from coveting precious resources. Finally, the first step for Wakanda to integrate into the world was to take the initiative to share resources and technology to the Western world at the United Nations! Is there a more conservative narrative than this? The cleverness of Marvel lies in the avant-garde cloak for conservative stories. On the surface, it tells the story of black people becoming heroes and being equal to white people. In fact, the image of black heroes fully meets the needs of white people and does not pose a threat to them. The black heroes also did not guarantee racial equality, and instead used the blacks who were fighting for equality as their enemy. It seems that mainstream superhero movies are still dominated by mainstream American ideology.

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Extended Reading

Black Panther quotes

  • Nakia: Eyes up. Americans. I count three.

    Okoye: Five. How could you miss Greased Lightning there behind you?

    T'Challa: [noticing Ross] Six. Just spotted an old friend who works for the CIA. It just got a little more complicated.

  • T'Challa: Agent Ross.

    Everett K. Ross: Your Highness.

    T'Challa: You are buying from Klaue.

    Everett K. Ross: What I'm doing or not doing on behalf of the U.S. government is none of your concern. Now, whatever the hell you're up to, do me a favor, stay out of my way.

    T'Challa: I gave you Zemo.

    Everett K. Ross: Didn't I keep it under wraps that the king of a third-world country runs around in a bulletproof cat suit? I'd say we were even. You really need to leave, now.

    T'Challa: Klaue is leaving out that door with me. You've been warned.