Groundbreaking superhero epic Black Panther put the African experience at the forefront of a mainstream Marvel film, reaching a worldwide audience and scoring a phenomenal $1.3 billion at the box office, while Ralph Breaks the Internet showcases the ways we’ve been affected by living our lives online.
Bringing Black Panther to as many people as possible was of course vital, and part of the film’s long reach, director Ryan Coogler told Deadline’s Mike Fleming, came from its universal themes.
“We talked about wanting to make a universal film,” he said, “a film that was was specific to the African experience, to the black experience, that could also be universally felt by an audience member of any heritage.”
Walt Disney Studios Highlights Societal Issues with ‘Black Panther’ & ‘Ralph Breaks the Internet’ – The Contenders LA
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“the Black experience”
Because that totally isn’t putting people into different camps. How bigoted and backwards… -
Really? Because the people I’ve seen praising it the most, are the furthest removed from TRUE African culture, and not whatever cliched and superficial interpretation Ryan managed to come up with.
I’ve been to central Africa several times (and long periods of time) and loved every minute of it. It is weird to say, but I feel a genuine connection to that continent and its culture. But I am also a realist (admittedly, maybe a little bit of a pessimist too) and there comes a lot of bad with the epicness of Africa. The point I’m making here is that according to your logic, I should love BP, but I don’t… I really, really don’t. Why? Because the “culture that they are depicting”, is not Africa’s TRUE culture. BP to me was a stereotypically angry black American film about stereotypically black American ways of thinking. I did not remotely recognize even a freaking shred of genuine African culture in that entire film. With the exception of the crowning ceremony (which was also highly stylized and “Americanized”), nothing about BP accurately represents Africa.
I just went to NY and LA in September, and it is astounding just how drastically different black Americans are from actual Africans and it is crystal clear the characters in BP weren’t written by someone who actually grasps Africa in any way. It was evidently written by a Hollywood, black American in the most stereotypical manner and it showed… That is why I hate all this moronic praise of “cultural representation”, because I know for a fact I grasp the culture (as a Westerner) better than most and BP was in no way an accurate representation. -
I don’t think you understand my point…. I am saying, race has absolutely nothing to do with whether you can “appreciate” the supposed culture it was representing. The fact that you conflate culture with race is exactly what’s wrong with BP, or more precisely, what’s wrong with the inflated praise it received. If it actually reflected TRUE African culture accurately, I would have loved it, even though I’m not black (which as far as I’m concerned is 100% irrelevant). That is because out of all the continents, Africa is my favorite (I’m European, so I’m not counting that one). I would love to live there, I love the people, I love the culture, the land, everything.
But I don’t love it, I didn’t even like it… yet 99% of black Americans who saw BP did love it. And don’t tell me they loved it because they are part of the “culture” that was represented, because they are NOT. That is like saying Americans feel represented by British films because Americans are just Brits who came to the land of America several hundreds of years ago. Except I see ZERO Americans thinking or behaving that way, because they have long lost that British heritage and it is the EXACT same for Black Americans and their African heritage. As someone who’s visited both the US and Africa, the difference between both (Africans and black Americans) is immense, and Africans themselves also want nothing to do with black Americans. They look at them with even more shock (and contempt, frankly) than they do at white people. Anyone who’s ever stepped foot in Africa knows that for a fact.
“I can’t make the deeper connections with it”
Yeah, and neither can Africans. Only black Americans and their desperate attempt at claiming some sort of cultural significance PRETEND to have a “deeper” connection with it. That “connection” is 100% fake and hilariously superficial (again, it would be like a white American feeling a “deep connection” to Braveheart or something).
So why then do so many Americans love BP? Because, unlike what you think, it isn’t because they are “culturally represented”… it is because they are RACIALLY represented, as well as the film pushing that “black anger” narrative through Killmonger (and they weren’t even a little bit ashamed of playing him off as a sympathetic character) and that’s all there is to it. Killmonger’s way of thinking was 100% black American way of thinking (not in the sense that all black Americans think like him, but that every black person who thinks like that, is more than likely American). I realize he was half American himself, but he also convinced half the native Wakandan board with EASE, as if they would ever agree with his bigoted stereotypically black American bullshit.
In my opinion, I find that extremely regressive, stupid and shallow: to use “African” characters to push an American issue. And them wrapping said superficiality in “cultural significance”, I find highly offensive, especially considering the people they claim to represent (ACTUAL Africans) couldn’t care less. In other words, Hollywood was pretty much using that culture and people to push its own “agenda” and that is why I find all of this upsetting.“Simply that I don’t have a reference point from which to either critique it or laud it along those cultural grounds.”
Yes, and I’m saying I do, far more so than 99% of black Americans (excluding 1st or 2nd generation African immigrants, of course) and those petty elitist “critics”, which is why I say with 100% confidence that said cultural grounds are entirely non-existent. -
The differences between individuals will always be bigger than the difference between groups and that is a fact, not an opinion you can subjectively disagree with. It may be true that there are average differences between groups, but the problem with Americans especially (of all races) is that you are so caught up in that highly destructive group think, which is bad for everyone. Americans also think they are the center of the world and conflate themselves with representations of entire groups. Black Americans feeling like they are no different from Africans for example… White Americans being conflated with the entirety of the white race, by blacks and the media.
I mean, when I wen to NY 2 months ago, I was on my way to the ferry to Staton Island, and there was this (black) guy there giving directions for tourists. I already knew the way so I told him politely “no thank you, I know the way, but have a good day”. Then he told me “okay then, so enjoy captivity!”. To which I told him I don’t know what the hell he’s talking about, so he explained through some religious rhetoric that I will suffer captivity myself because he believed white people enslaved blacks. When I told him I’m not American and my ancestors (in fact, pretty much all of fucking Europe) NEVER enslaved blacks or imprisoned them, he told me it doesn’t matter because I’m white. Another instant when I had to take my flight to LA, a black guy was trying to sell us a subway ticket, but we already had them so we (my brother and I) told him “no thanks”, and then he was enraged because “we didn’t let him finish” and he called my brother a “racist bitch” and was acting hostile. Frankly, I wanted to punch his face into the ground but maybe he was armed and we needed to take our flight anyway.
It’s this type of lunacy that I have only, and I truly mean ONLY encountered in the US. It is ONLY there where all this racial nonsense and group bigotry is still so damn prevalent and it disgusts me.
Europeans don’t act hostile towards black immigrants and black immigrants surely don’t act so damn aggressive towards us. (I would say the only aggression going on here is between (mostly Muslim) refugees and Europeans, but that has more to do with culture and beliefs than race itself).“Black Panther isn’t representing 1:1 African society”
I never said it did… I said that is what the people praising the film behave like or think. Again, I don’t necessarily have a problem with the film itself (I think it’s mediocre, a 6/10 at most), my problem lies with the highly ideologically motivated praise.“The film seems to have resonated with black society, and it does so for reasons that can’t impact me as much as it could a black person”
AGAIN, you don’t get it… It only “resonates” with “””black society””” (whatever that actually means) if you are talking about AMERICAN black society, NOT African. That is also why the film was such a monumental box office success in the US, but far less so (still great ofc) in the rest of the world.
It is precisely because the movie is far more about black American ways of thinking (slavery and historic injustices being a huge pressing issue and theme in the film) that the praise of “African representation” bothers me. Because it DOESN’T reflect Africa, not at all… and the people praising it are just using that as a defensive argument to justify their feelings. I’m white but understand and appreciate TRUE African culture far more deeply and fondly than the overwhelming majority of black Americans (just like a black British person would understand Britain far better than white Americans). And I am telling you, that praise is entirely without basis. You can take my word for it or not, believe me or not, “disagree” with me or not… I don’t really care, because from where I’m standing, what I just said is a fact anyway.
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