Comic: Seeing Black children flourish in ‘Black Panther’ excitement makes me beam
You thought we were insufferable when Luke Cage dropped on Netflix? Oh, sis...
by JeCorey Holder
After years and years of whitewashed characters, white actors in various forms of racially insensitive make-up effects, and nonsense like Zoe Saldana as Nina Simone… it finally happened.
After what seemed like an eternity after its initial announcement and following what seemed like an unstoppable train of hype leading up to the Blackest Black History Month in the year of our Melanated Lord 2018, Marvel’s Black Panther finally descended upon its eager Black-ass audience like the heavenly light of the Orishas.And BAAABY…. We lapped that shit up like honey.
RELATED: Welcome to Wakanda: ‘Black Panther’ is a love letter between the African Diaspora and the continent
Whether you liked it, disliked it, or got your entire life from it like I did, it was the shake of seasoning that the Marvel Cinematic Universe so desperately needed, after ten long years of superhero blockbusters with only white men at their center.
Adults loved it. Children loved it. Comic fans loved it. Other folks said they hated it for the mere sake of dissent, and I used that salt on my fluffy-ass theater pretzel.
And let me tell you, seeing little Black children devour and flourish from this representation will forever outshine anyone’s attempts to criticize Black Panther for the sake of being contrary or because they feel threatened by it. I’m watching these buttery brown babies dress up in Wakandan costumes, playing with the toys, wearing the merchandise with pride, and getting their entire life while thinking, “This must be what white kids get to feel all the time!” You will never take this away from them. From any of us.
RELATED: ‘Black Panther’ allows Black kids to see themselves as royalty
You thought we were insufferable when Luke Cage dropped on Netflix? Oh, sis… African culture finally got the blockbuster big-screen treatment we’ve waited for and that it deserves. We will be riding this high until the solo Storm epic finally arrives, following Ororo Munroe’s adventures in the Serengeti (It can happen. Shut up. Let me have this).
I’m telling ya, if they keep this Blackety Black representation ball rolling, it’s over for you white internet trolls. Plain and simple. Get ready.
Gamer, geek, and social activist. JeCorey Holder has been weaving tapestries of shade and fury since the early 2000’s. Pro-LGBTQ, pro-black, and pro intersectional feminism, he is full of feelings and opinions that try to call out and tear down the oppressive status quo