Black Panther was a movie that changed much of Hollywood and the film making industry when it first was released in January of 2018. Up until this point, not many movies, especially not super hero movies, featured an African American as the main character. This is the first megabudget movie to ever be produced that had an African American actor and a mostly black cast (Smith). The main characters in the movie are black actors. There are only a few white characters in the movie, and they play a minor role. Black Panther was a movie many blacks had been waiting for.
When Hollywood and film making for began, racial segregation was still very prominent. “Slavery, Hollywood and Public Discourse” talks about how, in the early years of film making, black characters were portrayed by white actors who painted their faces black (black face). One of the first major silent films produced was Birth of a Nation. This film portrayed slavery of African Americans. This was the typical view of blacks in films for a long time in history. “Slavery, Hollywood and Public Discourse” explains that in 1977, the movie Roots was one of the first to try to depict the difficult struggles blacks faced in America. However, this movie came 62 years after Birth of a Nation. This is a long time to hold the view of blacks as slaves or servants in films.
Why is it important to show diversity in films? Sharman quotes a professor, George Gerbner, who says “representation in the fictional world signifies social existence.” If you think about this, you can understand that if people are recognized and represented in films and other forms of the fictional world, it helps develop their existence in the real world. This is why Black Panther is so crucial to film history. It allowed blacks everywhere to picture themselves in this film, as a superhero. Black Panther came during a time in American history where 41% of African Americas were at or below the poverty line (Smith). This film showed blacks that they can be and do anything. It portrays blacks as smart, powerful and victorious, something the world needed to see.
Bibliography
Sharman, Russell. “African Americans in Cinema.” Moving Pictures, University of Arkansas, 18 May 2020, uark.pressbooks.pub/movingpictures/chapter/african-americans-in-cinema/.
“Slavery, Hollywood, and Public Discourse.” National Museum of African American History and Culture, Smithsonian, 8 Feb. 2018, nmaahc.si.edu/blog-post/slavery-hollywood-and-public-discourse.
Smith, Jamil. “The Revolutionary Power of Black Panther.” Time, Time, time.com/black-panther/.
Great post, Makenzie! It is crazy to me that black characters were portrayed by white actors that painted their faces. I bet that just looks artificial. It is inspiring to see the progress we have made from “The Birth of a Nation” to “Black Panther.” I agree with Gerbner in that representation of the real world is important to the fictional world. After reading your post, I am excited to watch “Black Panther!”
Great post! I also did a context presentation this week and I believe that the context presentations are very useful as we watch the movie. I agree that it is important to show diversity in films because it influences our pop culture and thus our society’s opinions of diversity. I am familiar with Birth of a Nation and do remember learning about the concept of “black face” in theater in high school. Black Panther does a great job of incorporating a powerful African American cast and Chadwick Boseman is a great actor for this film. Can’t wait to rewatch the film!!
Great post! This is a great introduction of what to expect when we watch the movie. It is important to understand what went into the planning and production of the film. I agree that our representation of the real world into a fictional world needs to be similar to the life we are living.
Great work, I enjoyed reading about the background of films. I think that the progress we have made so far is incredible, but there is always more to it always. We should just naturally include everyone not just because we need diversity. It is important to recognize everyone and make it feel natural but it is also hard to make such big deals because then everyone expects big deals over everything.
Hi Makenzie, great presentation. I thought it was good to highlight the ways in which POC have been depicted in films and for how long. It reminds me of my podcast, I mentioned that I, as a white person, have seen myself represented way longer than a Black person has. I related it to Disney princesses, the first Black princess wasn’t around until Tiana in 2009, while the first princess who was white came out a long time before in 1938. It is crazy, and sad, to see how long it took to make a movie that was about strong and independent Black characters/leaders.
Nice work! It is a really meaningful post. Since in many movies, black people are always playing the role of slaves or the lower class that make more and more people believe black people should look like that. However, they are wrong since everyone has the same potency and they should be respected by other people. Black people can be a hero too like the character in Black panther.
Hi! I really found your context presentation this week very interesting! I really loved how you brought up the film, “A Birth of a Nation”. I had to watch a part of that film in one of my classes and it was an extremely racist film that was offensive and immoral. I think the movie “Black Panther” has shown the process that has been made through the years, but I definitely think more works needs to be done to show more representation!
Good presentation, I found the history of film to be interesting, especially with the film “A Birth Of A Nation”. One point I am not sure I agree with is about the rarity in which the main character of superhero films being African American. The way you stated this was vague but I know of 9 superhero movie installments, 4 of which are trilogies where there was a main character that was African American before Black Panther. They are Hancock (Will Smith), Blade trilogy, the Xmen trilogy (Storm, Halle Berry), Matrix Trilogy (Morpheous, Laurence Fishburne), Incredibles (Frozone, Samuel L Jackson), Iron Man trilogy (Rhodes aka War Machine, Terrence Howard in Iron Man, Don Cheadle in future Iron Man movies and Avengers films), Fantastic 4 2015 reboot (Johnny, Michael B Jordan), Marvel’s Luke Cage on Netflix in 2016 (Mike Colter), and The Equalizer in 2014 (Denzel Washington). Now, your point about having diversity and how impactful it can be I agree with, the more the merrier, but I am not sure you realize how many superhero movies have existed with African American actors/actresses that are main characters with important roles that have significance in the main plot of the film/show that they are in.
Hi, you did a great job on this context research presentation. I also think it’s important to show diversity in the film because this can avoid some problems bring by the “single story”. Take the Black people for instance, they used to be portrayed as slaves in the films, however, in fact, they all have their own lives. The films should focus on other forms instead of only on their history of being slaves. Your post really helps a lot in understanding the movie which makes me look forward to watching it this week.
This is more than just a superhero movie! It is also a movie featuring African Americans for the most part of the movie. There are so many excellent African American actors but this is the one that the movie itself achieves so many awards. I like it very much I would definitely go watch Black Panther 2 in the future. Also sadly, the actor of Black Panther is dead. May he rest in Peace
Great post!
I believe that a movie like this is very necessary for our society and it is something that was good not only for our generation, but it was good for the youth coming up behind us admiring African American super heroes. Especially considering being an African American male in America, I love seeing the transformation of the norm. Growing up I only looked up to white super hero, and its good to see the start of some diversity in film making.
Hi! Really good job on your post. It’s so interesting and crazy to think how different our world really used to be. I can’t imagine watching a movie where the actors are wearing blackface. Black Panther was such an important film due to the representation present in it. I hope we continue to not exclude people of color from things in hollywood.
Great job on your research presentation post! Just as a Marvel movie, Black Panther is already one of the best not even including how huge it was for a severely underrepresented crowd. It is crazy to see how some films like Birth of a Nation addressed black people and how even to this day they are treated differently than others. As you said, it is so important that this film exists for little kids out there to be able to picture themselves as a hero and to have one that looks like them.