A Whirlwind Weekend in Wakanda

Trying to keep spirits lifted can seem an insurmountable task lately.

The highly hypocritical and near-farcical antics spilling from Washington, D.C. The steady revelations about the depths of depravity concerning sexual harassment and assault. The hail of bullets too often visiting communities large and small – along with the obligatory “thoughts and prayers” that have all the hollowness and even less usefulness of a toilet paper tube.

And on. And on. It’s been tough just finding air amid the ceaseless swell.

And then came Black Panther.

Howard University alum Chadwick Boseman as the Black Panther

The landmark Marvel film is helping to make this February a blackity black Black History Month for the pop culture ages. The President’s Day weekend debut has surpassed all box office expectations and proven a lie of the black-themed-films-don’t-sell excuse studios have used to justify limited releases featuring diverse casts.

Coming close to half of a billion dollars in ticket sales in four days will do that.

While the usual Marvel fanboy crowd is nestled in those seats, make no mistake. The engine powering this record-breaking surge of sales is coming from those deemed “sons of bitches” as well as those from “shithole countries” – recent descriptors of advocates and immigrants by the current U.S. president (among other choice racist diatribes).

In droves, we piled into theatres with family, friends, church groups, school mates and loved ones to refute such sentiments and instead watch an intelligent and complex protagonist who looked like us swoop across the screen to save the day. This time, his name wasn’t Obama but T’Challa – the Black Panther, ruler of the fictional African nation of Wakanda, and, after 50 years of existence, finally getting his close up on the silver screen.

Certainly, this latest installment in the Marvel Cinematic Universe isn’t solely a “race” movie. It is a Marvel superhero flick, after all, with all the requisite and entertaining whiz bang effects, tensions and laugh lines. But what sets this one apart clearly are markers of black excellence featured full frontal, compliments of director and co-writer Ryan Coogler and his own assemblage of Africana avengers.

The lineage of his actors spans the Diaspora – including Uganda, Zimbabwe, Tobago, Kenya, Guyana, Iraq, South Africa and the United States. Coogler drew talent trained at the finest institutions, which of course includes HBCUs like Howard and Hampton. And he presented a story of a place ground in myth, inflected with urban reality and glistening with progress uninterrupted and untainted by colonialism, sexism or any other ill-placed “ism.” 

The Wakandan view on relationships: partners and equals

Coogler lifted the idea of Wakanda from a comic book’s pages and planted its aspiration firmly in the imagination of millions, of all ages.

The response was immediate and evident in the resplendent fabrics, cosplay and Huey P. Newton-styled apparel of resistance showcased by moviegoers worldwide using full sartorial scope to convey solidarity.

Indeed, it was a Calgon-like moment to be swept into a world where brown-skinned characters played center stage, not just sidekicks on the fringes; where a woman’s grit did not negate her softness or equality; where men display affection as easily as strength; and where tradition did not hamper modernity.

Black and brown people showed we are here for that – from LA to London, Lagos to Lahore, and beyond.

Ever since the official trailer about Marvel’s first African superhero started circulating last year, tongues were wagging and panting for this release. A film helmed by charismatic non-white leads has provided both a welcome distraction and reframing of our collective cultural lens. It has led to a zeitgeist exploring what heights could exist if we no longer accepted European standards as the only one worthy of merit. The embrace of this film and concept could be seen in celebrity and citizen philanthropic efforts to send kids to see the film to celebratory screening parties such as the Wakanday/Vibranium Nights affair hosted by I Am Black Sci-Fi.

Escapism remains one of the markers of strong filmmaking, and the best movies often arise in the worst of times. Given all that faces us, this weekend retreat in a mythic space where neither blackness nor any of its physical, cultural or spiritual attributes equated inferiority created a new kind of rejuvenation.

Its effects may even prove lasting. That's an Afrofuturistic outlook that truly would be welcome.

#WakandaForever

Racist rampage: Charlottesville, revisited

It really can’t be lost that those today decrying a preservation of whiteness are rallying around iconography that celebrates a rejection of the United States. Nor should the level of violence that broke out in Thomas Jefferson’s backyard come as a real shock. It’s been brewing for some time. 

Last weekend’s assembly in Charlottesville – Unite the Right – descended on the small liberal Virginia college town under the guise of protesting the proposed removal of statutes of leading Confederate figures.

But they actually came because they are racists and are desperate to retain the vestiges of power racism offers, especially as wealth and the world passes them by. Those excusing their behavior are participants by proxy. Period.

Defined, racism is the ardent belief that one race’s superiority – in this case, white people – not only exists, but should be exercised and maintained by every available social, legal, financial and policy means available.

The neo-Nazis, the white nationalists and Ku Klux Klan that gathered in Charlottesville hold this view. And these torch-bearing Neanderthals traveled from across the country to spew racist, anti-Semitic bilge under the guise of protecting “white heritage.”

Believing that the First Amendment prescription for hate speech is more speech, counter protesters met them, to defend their town and ideals. Mayhem and even death ensued. 

Heyer

Heather D. Heyer, 32, along with Virginia State troopers H. Jay Cullen, 48, and Berke Bates, days from  turning 41, lost their lives in the aftermath.

 That so-called conservatives are laying blame for the violence on the counter protesters besmirches America. There are others who say white nationalists have “legitimate” concerns. 

There is a shorter explanation for this alt-right placation: "Racism works for me, thanks. Just don't call me a racist."

You see, “racist” has taken on the connotation of the vulgar and ugly, and no one wants to be so linked. It’s so unsophisticated, so impolite.

Better to believe things just happen for certain groups, as if by osmosis, an inherent abundance or lack of fill-in-the-blank –  intellect, talent, ethic, breeding, looks, charm or so on.

And never mention any type of unspoken edge or “privilege.” That would assume some mindfully requested advantage, as opposed to self-determination (see above fill-in-the-blank).

Chris Rock famously pointed out back in 1999 that when it gets down to it, average white people wouldn’t want to change places with even rich black people. They’d prefer things as they are, with some folks on top. Since most of those on top look alike, that must be the natural order of things, goes the thinking.

In Jefferson’s day, it was understood that only white (Anglo-Saxon, if you please) men counted when it came to possessing power, and those who gathered in Charlottesville deeply hold that conviction. They were determined to exercise it on behalf of all white people, even those who are content to blithely enjoy the fruits of their racist labor.

So they swathed themselves in symbolism to demonstrate their contempt for anything other than what truth they hold to be self-evident. Like those Confederates before them, they stood in open rebellion to the values of the United States of America. Like the Nazis who stood in open rebellion to the world, seeking to divide and conquer.

Both are textbook definitions for enemies of the state. So are terrorists, except when those doing the terrorizing are white. Then, heinous misdeeds seem to find new nomenclature.

That split view wasn’t lost on those rally participants, declaring they were just there to defend against affronts to “white heritage.” 

Brandishing Nazi swastikas is a harder sell. There’s little that could be less patriotic, something pointed out vigorously by a range of people across the political spectrum, from U.S. Sen. Orrin Hatch to German Chancellor Angela Merkel, all more forcefully than the U.S. president.

It took this president two passes to address Charlottesville, the second landing 48 hours after the carnage and only slightly stronger than the first. Both came couched amid braggadocio regarding plans for the U.S. economy. To borrow from his vocabulary, “Sad!”

The president's party succinctly says what he couldn't manage

It confirmed what many suspected, even feared, with his election. There’s no evidence that he’s an ardent alt-right follower, though key administration figures such as Stephen K. Bannon, Sebastian Gorka, Stephen Miller and others are near-celebrities in such circles.

But he’s clearly an opportunist, and the ways of this president bring a heavy moral baggage that left unchecked will translate into more wink-nods of tacit consent to those wailing to “take their country back” – by any means necessary, including more American bloodshed.

Verdict in Philando Castile slaying presents more heartache, cynicism and anger

Mid-week, America approved a $100 billion arms deal to Saudi Arabia, home to most of the 9/11 hijackers who visited the worst terrorist horror on our country in its history. During his recent state visit there, the current president assured Arabian leaders that the United States would no longer seek to impose our values on them, trifle matters like improving human rights records.

Instead, the new policy would focus on making deals and boosting “partnership.”

By Friday, this administration rescinded moves by President Obama to help normalize relations with Cuba. Citing “infringement on freedoms,” the current president attacked both Obama’s leadership and that of Cuba, and asserted that American values would reign again. 

Because America values human life and human rights. Except when black people enter the picture.

Philando Castile's life mattered. Courtesy: Facebook

You see, later the same day, a Minnesota jury acquitted Police Officer Jeronimo Yanez, the man who shot and killed Philando Castile in his own car last August. He was killed right beside his girlfriend as his 4-year-old daughter watched from the backseat, terrified.

Yanez wasn’t even being tried on murder charges; he faced manslaughter and endangering innocents.

He was cleared of it all.

By now, the shock and anger shouldn’t arise, right? Castile was only a black man, and our history shows black humanity remains a point of question, particularly when there’s an interaction with law enforcement. And it’s certainly difficult to see any justice arising in this verdict.

Licensed with a concealed carry permit, Castile had the temerity to tell Yanez that and he had a gun. Because not to tell the officer would, you know, be irresponsible. It’d cause him to risk posing an undisclosed threat and possible grounds to get shot.

So of course, Castile was shot anyway. While  trying to put up his hands. Demonstrating he posed no threat.

Castile’s girlfriend, Diamond Reynolds, had the presence of mind to jump onto Facebook to live stream what unfolded after he was shot. All the while, she worked to comfort their daughter, who watched a man armed by the state shoot into their car and kill her father for no apparent reason. She wanted to document an atrocity she saw happening.

Meanwhile, Yanez seemed to take his time in calling for help. Castile, the elementary school food service worker beloved by children, co-workers and family alike, bled out.

If you were waiting for the ever-boisterous NRA to file an amicus brief or even denounce this killing, you’re clearly still waiting – as are some of its members. The Minnesota jury didn’t focus on Castile’s standing under the Second Amendment, either.

Instead, jurors chose to fixate on the fact that Castile had smoked marijuana that night, the rationale Yanez gave for declaring his actions justified. The fact that white people with guns approach  police AND return home unharmed mattered not here.

Yanez wasn’t too moved by Castile’s humanity in the moment, nor the lifelong scars he’d inflict on Reynolds or her pre-school daughter. But in court, he was moved to tears as he described the incident, and made sure to demonstrate the sentiment so often cited by police officers questioned for killing black people – fearing for his life.

Because whenever a police officer in this country encounters a black person – male or female – there seems to be instantaneous fear, and quite often, acquittals, no matter the circumstances or even video caught by body cams or bystanders. 

Because juries empathize with them, that these officers feared for their lives.

There’s seldom such empathy for those who are terrorized by experiencing or hearing about such events, time and again. That’s despite the fact that America proclaims itself completely and totally vested in preserving human rights. 

Americans shake their heads when they read stories about destruction-bent suicide jihadists who want to inflict pain on others. So many fail to imagine a rage that would drive someone to such a desperate and despicable act.

Living as a black person in America could give you a glimpse into that level of despair. Guess that’s why our sense of patriotism often feels tenuous, especially when any passion we have for our nation of birth seems unrequited, at best.