Black Panther Review from Native American Perspective.
Perhaps because of the effects colonization has had worldwide, but there are many aspects of Native American Identity at play in Black Panther, even if the movie never directly mentions Native Americans. As much as the film is about Afro-futurism, the movie opens in Oakland, California, on stolen Native American land, whether the film notices it or not. From how the Nation of Wakanda is presented as invisible in the world around them, to how the hero and villain were an illusion of the major issue facing Native American nations, dis-enrollment.
Black Panther maybe the one of the best Superhero film, and the moment that elevates it is something that is rare in movies today, especially the Marvel Cinematic Universe, a complex antagonist. Most villains are copy and paste, take over the world or universe because they can. Killmonger is different than other villains in modern movies, he has relatable and compelling reasons for his attempted conquest. What motivates Killmonger, retribution for injustices leveled against people of African American decent by Western Nations. Not only slavery and segregation, but also, red lining, racial profiling and increased mass incarceration. Killmonger believes Wakanda can fix the plight of minorities around the world. Killmonger wishes to take Wakanda from its Isolation and become the colonizer of the colonized. An ongoing fear of “white American.”
The best villain are ones who believe they are doing what is right. All the beats Michael B. Jordan hits as the villain Erik Killmonger are superb. It’s vital in a movie dealing with racial issues that people see themselves not just as heroes but as flawed human beings in their own humanity. For Native Americans, specifically, those who are like I am, of mixed heritage, Killmonger could easily have been classified the hero. Killmonger is the child of a Wakanda spy killed in American, the younger Killmonger was raised by his mother in an Oakland ghetto. Jealous and angry he has been kept from his birthright, Killmonger attempts to overthrow the Wakanda power structure and liberate minorities from their oppression around the world. It is up to the Black Panther and a Wakanda Civil War to stop it. Killmonger could easily represent the monsters Native Nations are creating when they attempt to disenroll their own citizens.
Wakanda is presented as a superior advanced nation than the rest of the world, at a time advanced aliens are letting themselves be known in the Marvel Cinema Universe. The technology the Anasazi used to build cliff dwellings scientist theorize were about 200 years more advanced than the same technology Columbus used to start the European invasion. Another interesting note, the Cliff dwellings were well hidden until the 20th century, similar to Wakanda opening its boarders at the end of the movie.
Another issue facing Native Nations that connects to black panther is how the film highlights tradition dying out to progress. For Killmonger, progress requires killing traditions. For T’Challa, his goal is keeping the tradition he can, while realizing he must forgo some that are not working. Native American Identity has always been multicultural and national, a movie must be careful as to not depict it as frozen in the past but one that remixes tradition.
The people of Wakanda are extremely Nationalistic, their view of the world is in two groups, Wakanda and Everybody else. Wakanda first attitude, built walls, refused refugees, reject trade, and offer no foreign aid, all in name of protecting Wakanda, because they value the lives of those who share the same heritage and culture as they do. However, Killmonger, having grown up in America has a strong sense of racial identity. For him, because Wakandan’s have the same skin color as blacks in the rest of the world, Wakandan’s should see themselves as part of a global black community. Among the first things he says on the throne is, “All around the world, people who look like us are suffering.”
Killmonger is a reflection of the sins of our past. He offers the viewer a position to take, he is not just a challenge to the movies protagonist, he guides him and offers insight into how better to serve people that have experienced both sides of the harm of colonialism. The movie uses all aspects of Indigenous identity and explores it through aspects of Indigenous-futurisms as much as Afro-futurisms.
