Black Panther

The new sensational movie of 2018 Black Panther was released on February 16th, 2018 in theaters and has been a hit. This movie was written by Ryan Coogler, and Joe Robert Cole while being directed by Ryan Coogler. This Marvel Studio movie doesn’t only keep you hanging off your chair the whole time it also touches on many international, political, and racial issues that are soaring through media outlets today. 

The simple plot of the story has to do with a “small, underdeveloped” country called Wakanda located in Africa. This country does not accept refugees and even though it attends United Nations hearings it is not a Member State in the United Nations. The opening scene we are introduced to King T’Chaka who remains the King of Wakanda until he is tragihttps://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dxWvtMOGAhwcally killed in a bombing at a UN Delegation. After his death, his son, King T’Challa appears to naturally take the throne as we see in common Kingship run governments. Quickly the viewer is made aware that these Kings are far more powerful than they appear. The country has a secret weapon that they have been hiding from the rest of the world. This weapon is called Vibranium and is one of their natural resources. They choose to not share this wealth or benefit with anyone else in the world. In addition, they do accept any refugees and remain isolated at the international level. 

With their powerful resource of vibranium and their organized tribes that are each represented by a leader (similar to a Parliamentary system). One of the arguments made throughout the movie is that Wakanda was so successful and rich because they did not get involved with other countries and did not become a leader at the international level. 

This can be seen as controversial and can trigger the viewer to think that if they didn’t try and save every single country then we would be in a better position as a nation. This logic is similar to “Trumpism” and the idea of “Making America First Again”. Very similar to how the country is split here into the current United States with Democrats and Republicans we see a similar split during the movie. Some characters believe that Wakanda should aide the other countries and provide Vibranium to those that need it. On the other hands, others like King T’Challa believe that this should be kept for their country only and that they shouldn’t arm others outside of Wakanda. In contrary one of his biggest rivals throughout the movie, Erik Killmonger believes that this wealth should be distributed to all of their allies so they can overthrow the current “powerful countries”. 

One blogger on the Atlantic puts this “third world country” Wakanda into three perspectives and three possible outcomes. The first is through the eyes of the current King and prince in which Wakanda remains neutral and does not aide any countries. In the eyes of the world Wakanda is a third world country but behind the magical forest, it keeps soaring and growing. The second is what others in Wakanda might want to see like Nakia, where she sees that Wakanda can help African nations by curing diseases, offering foreign aid, accepting refugees and becoming a lead nation but only to serve to help others. Finally, the third alternative comes from the eyes of Klaue in which he sees Wakanda giving their powers to the “forgotten African American” class so they can overthrow the current “white supremacist” government and wage war in order for Wakanda to become a world leader and superior to other governments and countries. These three alternatives that are presented here are all raised moral and political questions which is more than any Marvel movie has ever brought to light. 

This raises the issue and continues discussion of racial discrimination and equalization. In this movie, the citizens of Wakanda are African Americans and are living extremely lavish lifestyles with great technological advances. However on the outside and elsewhere in the world especially in the United States, we see police brutality against African Americans, unequal pay. Erik Killmonger who was raised in the United States saw first hand how hard it was for African Americans and is determined on aiding them with vibranium. 

Could this be the solution for the world or would this then create a prisoner's dilemma similar to the prisoner's dilemma we have now with nuclear powers? 


Good news is that we can await the second movie and see some of the possibilities of what could be America’s solution to peace based on this Marvel Movie.