2 key messages about Black Love in “Black Panther” that we cannot afford to miss

It was a record-setting opening weekend for the Marvel movie Black Panther which premiered on this past weekend. If you haven’t seen the movie already, I’m going to share some spoilers in this article, so you may want to come back to this when you have seen the film. But if you have, perhaps you may or may have not seen these messages that were related in the film.

It’s up to one’s interpretation and perspective at the time of watching Black Panther, but after watching it twice I have come to see that there are some messages that seem to be tailor-made for the African-American audience from this film.

Mutual respect between the sexes

In Wakanda there seems to be no underlying gender inequality or battle between the sexes. We see men and women working together serving one another and being unified on the front of community harmony. Of all the scenes in this film the scene that relates the most to this particular message is towards the end where several of the Wakandan tribes fight each other.

Okoye, the fierce general of the king’s security force aka the Dora Milaje, confronts the border patrolling tribes’s leader, W’Kabi. What makes this particular confrontation in the midst of a heated battle on the grass fields of Wakanda even tenser is that they are lovers. Okoye is devoted to her nation so much so that she is willing to stick to the tradition of who rules the country, and her loyalty remains intact in this scene in which her love questions if she would take his life; to that she responds for Wakanda without question.

It is at that moment W’Kabi takes a moment to view whats around him: brothers and sisters against one another tribes that were once at peace who are now fighting each other and he is part of the reason why they are fighting. What Okoye wanted him to understand is that the harmony of their country was bigger than her allegiance to him emotionally. If she had to take him out in order to restore peace and order to Wakanda that would be what she would have to do and he understood that. That’s probably what he loved and respected about her the most.

So after the moment of reflection he drops his weapon and falls to his knees in humility. This to me symbolized not a surrender to her as him surrendering to her, but out of respect for the wisdom that she had towards restoring peace to their country.

What can we learn from this moment? We have to look at the bigger picture and see what has caused the chaos and the fighting between black men and black women; what has caused the finger-pointing, name calling and other divisive moments in our history that have reflected in broken families, communication and communities.

In order to restore our Black communities we need to consider that respect, loyalty, humility and focus are needed not just between men and women, but both for the greater good of the Black people.

The superhero effects of Fatherlessness

Many have recognized the theme of the African American struggle versus the Black elite class with the call to support their fellow man in disparaged communities. I’m not sure if any reviews covered this angle but I wanted to because fatherlessness was a topic for me to cover throughout 2017. We are introduced to T’Challa’s father in the previous Captain America film Civil War. After losing his father in a terrorist attack T’Challa has to take on the role of his father and serve his country of Wakanda as the new king and black panther.

In a ritual ceremony T’Challa visits the ancestral planes to see his father and talk to him. What we see in this scene is T’Chaka affirming T’Challa as who he is as his son and the new king. In this emotional scene we see that T’Challa has a hard time departing emotionally from his father. It shows the connection they had growing up and he reverenced his father’s character and wanted to follow in his footsteps as a king.

In another ritual scene later on in the film we see that Erik Killmonger visits his ancestral plane where he grew up: in Oakland California. He talks to his father who tearfully sees what his son has become and seems to regret having not taking him to Wakanda before he died. Erik grew up in America even though he was of Wakandan lineage and experience the harsh realities of being Black, impoverished and without a father. He represented a pain than many of us Black Americans feel not just on the racial aspect or the poverty level, but on the fatherlessness angle.

In superhero films and perhaps other epic genres in movies it is important for the male lead (super hero or super villain) to have some reason for what they do and their identity is often changed or discovered based on the relationship or lack thereof of their father. We’ve seen this in Batman certainly, and it could also be said about Peter Parker in Spider-Man.

But the effects of fatherlessness and relationship with our fathers mean something to the Black community and this element of the film.

In another scene that was emotionally charged T’Challa confronts his father once again after learning the truth about what happened to his uncle who is also Erik’s father that night in Oakland in the first scene of the film. T’Challa recognized that T’Chaka choosing to leave Erik behind and hiding the truth from everyone left a scar not only on Erik but the history of Wakanda.

T’Challa asked him why did you leave him and to that T’Chaka said it was a truth he chose to omit. It is a sad seeing if you look at it from their perspective of the fatherless angle. We see a man confronting the previous generation as to why he left his seed, his family, for self-preservation or some other purpose. Perhaps if Erik grew up to have another father figure or even come back to Wakanda he would have had a better opportunity and living life but the fact of the matter is that his father was killed by his own uncle was a tragic turn for his story arc.

T’Challa confronted his father in a way that many of us would like to confront the men in our community. Why did you leave your sons and daughters? Why did you abandon your children or people who needed you? Now this may be a reach, but as we see in this film there are examples of what it looks like when you have your father in your life to guide you and when you do not, even if the parent is not perfect.

So besides the major themes and messages that were shared in the film Black Panther, perhaps there are dual messages that one could get from this movie and certain scenes based on what we are aware of or what perspective we choose.

Since I am passionate about the subjects this what stood out to me when I saw the film and hopefully I’m not alone in this. What are your thoughts on the messages in the film Black Panther? Share your thoughts in the comments!