I'm Not Here For White People's Misguided Opinions on Black Panther

I feel like I always have to mention the fact that I'm not an avid Marvel comic book reader, but I digress.

I saw Black Panther tonight with my roommate and my boyfriend, and it was the most amazing thing I've watched in a theater in a long time.

While it wasn't a perfect movie, it gave me exactly what I wanted. Black people wearing cool costumes and doing cool shit. Also, the strong Black women featured in this film, (Lupita and Danai), were so bold and so beautiful that I couldn't stop looking at them. Little Black girls everywhere will be rejoicing at the sight of these dark-skinned Queens.

Yet, it was a "Disney" movie with a "Disney plot" and honestly, felt a little bit Lion King-y...but omg to see Black superheroes in their mother country was a goddamn mind-blowing experience for me and you can't put a price on that shit.

What do I mean by "Disney?" I mean, people get violently murdered and there's no blood, but how the hell else were they supposed to get a PG-13 rating? You take what you can get. [Insert shrug emoji here]

Of course, when Black people try to celebrate anything, there's always a few white folk standing by just waiting to tear it to shreds.

Here are some common white people criticisms/questions I've heard:

"If they're so technologically advanced, why are their customs so primitive?"

Which basically translates to, "If they're so advanced, why are they still black?"

Leave it to white people not scoff at African customs and values. I shouldn't even be surprised at this point seeing how the colonizers have always thought of us as savage. My ancestors were brought to America as slaves and all their customs and languages were stripped away from them. They didn't ask that question about Thor and his adopted brother and their fairytale Asgard.

"Black Panther is too political."

Or, "Black Panther is too black."

That comment just makes me laugh. My skin is political. The kink of my hair is political. My entire existence is political. We didn't put ourselves in this situation, white man, your father's father's father's father did.

"It was just a typical Marvel movie."

And yet you stood in line and exchanged your hard-earned money for a ticket. Enough said.

"The movie wasn't that great."

To you. Because you haven't lived in this skin and felt what we've felt. You don't know what it's like to be constantly aware of your otherness in a room full of white people. You never have to think about representation in movies, because our media is oversaturated with white faces and I'll be damned if I deny the elation I felt sitting in that theater among all those other black people, for once we were the majority.

"It felt like watching The Lion King."

Okay. Yeah. I'll give you that one.

If you have yet to see Black Panther, please go see it, whether you're Black or not.