the comic embraced bold and controversial story lines, including one in which black panther battled the kkk. the beauty, the pomp and circumstance intrigued me. in the early 1990s, wesley snipes tried bringing black panther to the screen. that was so much tense at that time period. around the time he hoped to make the movie, that tension exploded into riots after four lapd officers were acquitted in the beating of rodney king. i thought it would be a good thing to take a project like black panther, which would be the antithesis of how africa was depicted, how the black community was depicted and african-americans in this country were perceived. after some initial interest, the studios passed on the project. when it didn t happen, i was kind of like, okay, i kind of
where you gravitate towards that. that s a feeling i wish i had when i was a kid. the filmmakers take their life experiences and translate them into an authentic and relatable story of a black super hero. really? the black panther. there is this ambivalent and complicated relationship between black identity and american citizenship. one that s mediated by two centuries of slavery, a century of jim crow, all the various life, health, political, economic disparities between black and white in this country to this day. hollywood has never made an authentically african movie with a majority black cast on this scale, leaving some to wonder,
my team was holding me up. they didn t know i wanted to faint. i felt really like, man, this is make or break. cast, crew and guests walk a majestic purple carpet, wearing dazzling african-themed fashion. i m really nervous. the work is done. now you show it and hope people are into it. you know what i mean? cast members sense that they and their industry may be poised on the leading edge of a wave of profound social change. this could be a shift in popular culture. hopefully, it changes the again idea of what being an african is. too often times we see africa as a place that s wanting. here it s a place you want to go. it s beautiful.
there was a time where africa was more advanced than the rest of the world. what if that never got lost? reginald was a creator of the animated television show. what if we didn t have colonial people that put people in chains and destroyed their language, their culture? what if you kept going with that cultural head start? the representations of africa that we see are often from somebody else s perspective. so often as africans, we re not able to make our own myth. we get somebody else s version. often, those are damaging. ryan coogler created an imaginary version of africa. it was advanced and so on. black panther is more than 50 years in the making, creating by stan lee and his partner jack
promptly set a new record for any marvel film. then just three days later, the stormy political climate collides head-on when president trump makes headlines. using vulgar language, president trump questions why the united states would law people from haiti and africa into the country. describing those places using an expletive while suggesting people from norway might be more acceptable. i think it came le a perfect time, perfect time when we wer speing truth to power. when we re asking to be seen for who we are. no matter the gender, no matter the race, no matter where you come from. this yours? within a month, an a facebook