Sorry, that was shorthand and perhaps not entirely appropriate terminology. Basically I mean that Black Panther at times seemed like it was being directed by Spike Lee. The racial messaging was extremely in your face. Whole lotta “man, white people are ignorant and arrogant,” “black people are victims and we have to help them” stuff peppered throughout the entire film. Probably culminating in the worst line of the movie (paraphrasing) “bury me at sea like my ancestors who jumped off the ships to avoid slavery.” Then the delightful cut scene at the UN where Pompous Old White Boy scoffs “Wakanda is a third world country - what can you possibly teach us?” Said nobody at the UN, ever.
I had quite a few critiques of the movie myself. I think it is hard to imagine that people in Wakanda would not look down on white people, that makes the most sense.
I think the "black people are victims and we have to help them" was pretty much first introduced by Killmonger and to me cuts to one of the core reasons why the film is so strange. It would be a much more interesting movie if Killmonger had won and then tried to fight the world in a Maoist 3rd world revolution and then been stopped further along. Then what?
The idea that the King would stop that and then only work within the UN and Western power structures to help the rest of Africa/First World blacks is pretty weird.
The weirdest part for me is trying to understand why this super advanced, very rich society is still a monarchy with the most primitive politics imaginable. If it is like that, we don't have nearly enough about the other people of Wakanda. Are they happy with this arrangement? Are dissidents locked up? I don't get that at all.
Also, Killmonger was right.
