By Steven Korbin
In fairness Black Panther, the superhero film based on the Marvel Comic character, is a more entertaining movie than I was expecting. By way of reference, however, that is as close to saying nothing as one might get without actually saying anything. It’s like winning the “taller than me” award. It’s just… so close to accomplishing nothing it can hardly be called an accomplishment. It’s like telling somebody, ”yeah… I like air.”

 Water too?

 “Yeah… and water. I like water AND air.”

 Wow.

 Deep.

Other than that, and the usual high tech CGI associated with top grossing super hero Franchise movies, Blank Panther, directed by Ryan Coogler, who with Joe Robert Cole also wrote the script, seems to glorify the most extreme Fascist ethnostate seen in cinema since … FOREVER!

Don’t think so?

Well, here’s 10 Reasons why Marvel Comic’s Black Panther movie comes off like racist propaganda:

King T’Challa assumes his throne

 Fascism: a political philosophy, movement, or regime that exalts nation and often race above the individual and that stands for a centralized autocratic government headed by a dictatorial leader, severe economic and social regimentation, and forcible suppression of opposition (Merriam-Webster)

 

1. It’s not just racist, it’s DEEPLY, DISTURBINGLY racist. To be of WAKANDAN BLOOD…is to be UTTERLY EXCLUSIVE not merely to other NATIONALITIES, but to all other RACES OF MANKIND. If you are a BLACK AMERICAN…you are to the WAKANDAN TRIBE, a virtual subhuman.

2. The opening scene touches upon but only glances over the fact that in an ALL BLACK WORLD, the slaves, slave CATCHERS, slave TRADERS and slave OWNERS are ALL…”black.”

3. In terms of “social justice” and “equality” and “democracy” and other mainstays of the “revolutionary” movement, the society on display is the literal ANTITHESIS of what even the most chowder headed “revolutionary” would propose. He is a KING…by DIVINE RIGHT. He is AWARDED ABSOLUTE RULE over a POPULATION that is excluded from even the POSSIBILITY of SHARING POWER because of the DNA in their bloodstream.

4. Rule can ONLY be “CONTESTED” by OTHERS of so-called “ROYAL LINEAGE.”

5. Rule is contested not by democratic election, but MORTAL COMBAT…in which the SITTING KING is granted an ASTONISHINGLY UNFAIR “JUICING” ADVANTAGE by ingesting a form of COSMIC STEROID.

6. While the WHOLE OF AFRICA SUFFERED under both its OWN INDIGENOUS PRIMITIVE CRUELTY, MUSLIM CONQUEST/ENSLAVEMENT and EUROPEAN COLONIZATION, the WAKANDANS DID NOTHING. They WITNESSED…they WATCHED…they sat SILENTLY and SANCTIONED the GREATEST GENOCIDE THE WORLD HAS EVER KNOWN. In the face of EVIL…the PEOPLE OF WAKANDA…did NOTHING.

7. All that is “SPECIAL” about this race of super-black people is that they had the PURE LUCK to settle upon land that through no effort or contributions of their own was enriched with a precious NATURAL RESOURCE.

8. Instead of SHARING the marvels of the technology that was LITERALLY DUMPED ON THEM from OUTER SPACE, they HID IT, they HOARDED IT, they DENIED ITS INCALCULABLE BENEFITS to the REST OF THE EARTH’S INHABITANTS.

9. While HIDING BEHIND WALLS built of HIGH TECHNOLOGICAL WIZARDRY, still the WAKANDANS would purport to LECTURE OTHERS about building “OBSTACLES” versus BRIDGES.

10. And the final insult…rather than INVITING INTO THEIR MIDST the POOR, NEEDY, IMPOVERISHED, HUNGRY, SICK and HOPELESS…OR setting up shop in any one of the SCORES of GREAT POVERTY ZONES IN THE WORLD…they set up shop in OAKLAND, CALIFORNIA?

(And, I didn’t even knock it for appropriating Wakanda – the Osage and Kaw Nation’s word for ‘God’ or ‘Creator’)

Black Panther is NOT “just a movie”, as the stake holders have themselves so determined. For what it truly IS…in relation to what it is PRESENTED TO BE… Black Panther is as SHAMELESS and GAUDY a work of CINEMATIC RACIST PROPAGANDA as “BIRTH OF A NATION.”

Steven Korbin is a lawyer and cultural commentator living in Los Angeles, California. He holds a Master of Arts in American History, Columbia University, and is a graduate of Loyola Law School.  His use of all caps should be considered an extension of Mr. Korbin’s passion during the writing process.