Wakanda Forever
Chadwick Boseman dying is an unspeakably sad swerve in a slog of a year.
Watching Black Panther for the first time, I remember being embarrassed at the reveal of the glittering heights they created in Wakanda. Afro-futurism merged with traditional elements to create a world so fantastic yet so far removed from any comic, sci-fi or fantasy medium I had consumed before. I felt the same kind or embarrassed when I read Lovecraft County, now a series on HBO, marveling at how stupid every white-centric horror trope is that I had accepted prior.
“You’re fabulously rich long-lost uncle left you a house in his will as you are his only living heir! The only catch is it might be haunted!”
“Thanks for the windfall, instead of accepting this absurd premise, I will be listing ol’ Uncle Moriarty’s house-of-horrors on Zillow.”
“Oh okay got it.”
The End
How much more horrific is a haunted house that you can’t sell because you are locked into a rent-to-own agreement where you lose your entire investment if a single rent payment is missed? Or being trapped inside with monsters at the door, but your compatriots in this fight-for-survival also want you dead because of your appearance?
Or cut the first half of these premises and be reminded that racism is horror.
I was raised to have a liberal disposition and grew up in a diverse environment. Yet in my youth, I still drifted towards the center lane of nerdom and fantasy. Where every sword and shield yarn is another WW2 parable, where the acceptable comic hero is an overly angry and wrathful white guy, where Sci-Fi is usually not much more than a gritty filter put over a Buck Rogers episode. The white default of American media and fantasy is a maelstrom, pulling everything down with it and smashing to pieces what remains on the fringes.
I thought I grew out of this, but in 2018 I remember clearly what my criticism of Black Panther was in my yearly Oscar recap:
“The movie could have been split into 2 arcs and it seemed like [Ryan Coogler] was directing like he didn’t know that he was going to get a chance at a sequel… they shouldn’t have tied up Kilmonger’s arc in one film”
Knowing now that Chadwick Boseman was fighting colon cancer at the time the movie was made, and knowing how little is guaranteed in the world, and how much less is guaranteed if you are black in America, I have to write my criticism off as another unfortunate case of my brain defaulting to the warping logic of my ever present white reality.
The logic that says that things go as they generally should. That the route to success is obvious and you should count on things to continue pretty much as they always have prior. That you don’t have to rush things as “it will all work out in the end”.
Losing a genuine star like Chadwick diminishes the arts for everyone, but continuing the momentum of, and the desire for more diverse creators, stars and themes in all mediums is the only way for fans to find a silver lining.
Wakanda Forever
RIP Chadwick Boseman. Oh, to be young, gifted and black.