Since I didn't feel like I could make that decision myself, I asked tumblr blog writingwithcolor. Usually, they give all sorts of tips on how to write POC characters in fiction (if you're a writer of some sort, definitely check them out!), but I felt like they were the right ones to ask this anyway, even if it was about non-fiction. (You can read their full answer here.)
The point that reasonated most with me was: Racists don't hesitate to write bad, racist reviews about it, so why should I hesitate to write praise? All support is good support as long as I don't speak for black people, but for myself and my own mind. And what can I say, that does make perfect sense. So here we go.
Black Panther is set after Civil War where T'Chaka, the King of Wakanda, a fictional country in Africa, was killed and his son T'Challa (Chadwick Boseman) takes his place. He returns to Wakanda to be crowned king and officially become the Black panther. On the outside Wakanda pretends to be a third world country, but actually they are a very well developed nation with a high level of technology way ahead of the outside world based on their rich vibranium resources. The reason they managed to develope so well and stay that way is mostly their secrecy and keeping everyone else out, because that way, they never got colonialized and exploited by the Europeans like the rest of Africa. But obviously keeping the borders closed and keeping to themselves also means not really helping people on the outside either. While the military does do missions to, for example, save Nigerian women from being trafficked, some feel like this is to little given what they could do with all the technical developement they have. The big question here is: Keep Wakanda a secret to protect it, or risk the safety to help others?
One character who advocates for the later is Nakia (Lupita N'yongo), T'Challas ex, a so-called War Dog, an undercover spy to complete missions in other countries - she has seen a lot of the misery the outside world has to deal with and feels the need to help these people more than they do now. However, this is not really a radical view and thus she is not radical.
Other than Eric Killmonger, T'Challas lost cousin who returns to Wakanda, claims the throne, wins it rightfully in a traditional battle and becomes king. His idea is to distribute the (a lot more advanced) weapons Wakanda has to all the black people in the world to conquer their oppressors. In order to prevent that, T'Challa has to reclaim the throne - and also needs to find an answer to the question wethere they should stay hidden or help the world and a good way to do it.
I already hinted at me loving the movie and that there will be a lot of praise.
First of all: Boom, black representation! Of course it's not my place to judge wether or not black people feel represented by Black Panther. But it the place of black people to say wether or not they feel represented, people like Michelle Obama for example, all the non-famous black voices I read on Twitter, Facebook and Tumblr, and, of course, all the black people involved in the making of Black Panther, the actors, the director, everyone. On a very theoretical standpoint though, it is a game changer: We see black people being the heroes instead of thugs and criminals, we see black people being rich instead of poor, we see black people being highly intelligent instead of uneducated - we see so many stereotypes being not used for once, all while none of them is any less human, because not one character is in any way overglorified. They are human, they make mistakes, they may have problematic views that need to be deconstructed and questioned, and that is a great thing about there being so many black characters: all of them get to be different and we see a wide spectrum of diverse roles they play, contributing to the radical notion that black people are exactly that: People that are all individuals with strenghts and weaknesses just like every white character we have ever seen in movies, just that they are black. Now that doesn't sound like such a huge deal, and you are right, it actually isn't. And at the same time is, because while it should definitely be, this is far from being the standard. I think I, personally, have never seen a movie where black people just got to be people like everyone else.
Also, all of that happened while completely embracing blackness - the amount of different African influences we see in Wakanda is astounding. There are lip plates, head dresses, masks, neck rings and a lot more influences from different African cultures - I highly recommend the Twitter thread from Waris (@diasporicblues) who explains all the influences, you can learn a lot from that. Black Panther is refreshingly unapologizing of their blackness. Another thing I loved about it is that when the Wakandans speak English, they have a very distinctive accent and they still get to be taken seriously. Because they are serious. Another thing that should be the standard but isn't.
Then there is the way Black Panther plays with stereotypes and racism. Characters make jokes about stereotypes and shit with white people, T'Challas sister Shuri calling one "colonizer" is legendary, and to be fair: Yes. Yes it does sting a bit being the butt of a joke and reduced to side kicks and minor roles. But be honest with yourself, isn't that just fair? Isn't that what the predominately white movie industry does to people of colour all the time? And also: Doesn't it show that when we feel a bit caught that we still have to work on our own internalized racism?
Last but definitely not least: Holy shmokes the women! Sure, it doesn't pass the Bechdel test completely: While there are four named female roles (part one: check), who talk to each other (part two: check), they do mostly talk about men. But honestly, since the Black Panther, the main character, and also the villain(s) are male, that's a given. However, we have plenty of strong, amazing women on screen, they are diverse in character, have different strenghts, weaknesses, opinions and feelings and that is a lot more than what can be said about most films. I already talked about Nakia (Lupita N'yongo) in detail, there's Shuri (Letitia Wright) who is an amazing scientist and has the best humour (very meme-y), we have Okoye (Danai Gurira) who may be the fiercest warrior I have always seen (and who I instantly fell in love with, hands down. I am very bi, thanks), we have a very gracious Queen Mother Ramonda (Angela Basset) and so many other women who don't have names and lines but are still fierce and strong and amazing. If you can't manage to praise Black Panther as a anti-racist/ally for POC - at least recognize how feminist it is.
Other than all the social/political things that are to praise about Black Panther, it was a very entertaining story, it was just visually beautiful, it had really nice music and while I read that a lot of people didn't like the special effects: I, as someone who has no fricking clue of special effects, don't see what their problem is (which means, there was nothing feeling off or ripping me out of the experience).
So, overall: If you haven't seen Black Panther yet, go see it. And if you have already seen it... go see it again.
