# Black Panther movie **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [February 18, 2018, 8:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/black-panther-movie/809075 "2018-02-18T20:07:04Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 11
**Author:** ![andros](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e480ec/32.png) [@andros](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/andros)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2018, 4:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/black-panther-movie/809075/201 "2018-02-26T16:11:51Z")
> [@SlackerInc](#): > > …Ta-Nehesi Coates, and _he_ is kind of awful. In no universe is this accurate. ---
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2018, 4:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/black-panther-movie/809075/202 "2018-02-26T16:45:08Z")
> [@andros](#): > > In no universe is this accurate. Indeed, that quote is kind of awful. But I am assuming it was written by SlackerInc, and _he_ is kind of awful. ---
**Author:** ![WillFarnaby](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/willfarnaby/32/514_2.png) [@WillFarnaby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WillFarnaby)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2018, 5:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/black-panther-movie/809075/203 "2018-02-26T17:40:56Z")
> [@GIGObuster](#): > > Here, let me show once again what an ignoramus you are: > > [This Is What $1.25 Million Dollars a Month Bought the Russians – Foreign Policy](http://foreignpolicy.com/2018/02/16/this-is-what-1-25-million-dollars-a-month-bought-the-russians/) > > My impression was that he was **forced** in the movie to be a do-gooder. As he was indeed a jerk but changed his mind after his life was saved by the Wacandans that he thought were just going to ruin yet another shady deal to get vivranium for other shady deals. Even that paltry $1.25 million is for operations globally. The US money was a fraction of that. In any case it was a pittance. Keep pumping the war progaganda though. Mad Dog Mattis is so satisfied by the mainstream pumping of anti-Russia propaganda he has pivoted to placing Russia and China in his crosshairs. You’re doing a terrific job, it couldn’t have worked out better if it was an Operation Mockingbird venture. > **[Russia, China Replace Terrorism as Military's Top Priority: Mattis](https://www.military.com/daily-news/2018/01/19/russia-china-replace-terrorism-militarys-top-priority-mattis.html/amp)** > > Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said the era of great power competition has returned. ---
**Author:** ![Sailboat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sailboat/32/461_2.png) [@Sailboat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sailboat)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2018, 5:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/black-panther-movie/809075/204 "2018-02-26T17:56:56Z")
> [@jayjay](#): > > Given how well the movie portrays a country that is 100% African, with no colonial history (which includes the architecture, the city layout, the general design aesthetic, the clothing, etc), it’s no wonder the racists are losing their shit. Allow me to make a totally non-Pitworthy observation: pretty much the thesis of Jared Diamond’s _Guns, Germs and Steel_ is that some peoples did not have the resources (in the broadest sense, including climate and domesticable plants and animals) to compete with peoples who did. In the Black Panther movie, Wakanda gets access to a potent resource (“vibranium”) early on, and it makes all the difference in giving them a head start to become a “developed” country. So the movie seems to have (consciously or not) adopted the premise of Diamond’s book. ---
**Author:** ![GIGObuster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gigobuster/32/421_2.png) [@GIGObuster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GIGObuster)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2018, 5:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/black-panther-movie/809075/205 "2018-02-26T17:57:24Z")
> [@WillFarnaby](#): > > Even that paltry $1.25 million is for operations globally. The US money was a fraction of that. In any case it was a pittance. Still an ignoramus, it was indeed cheap because it required the creation of free accounts in social media. And also it was basically slave labor. Still that means that a lot of people were involved. > [@WillFarnaby](#): > > Keep pumping the war progaganda though. Mad Dog Mattis is so satisfied by the mainstream pumping of anti-Russia propaganda he has pivoted to placing Russia and China in his crosshairs. You’re doing a terrific job, it couldn’t have worked out better if it was an Operation Mockingbird venture. > > [Russia, China Replace Terrorism as Military's Top Priority: Mattis | Military.com](https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.military.com/daily-news/2018/01/19/russia-china-replace-terrorism-militarys-top-priority-mattis.html/amp) And now you are just an useful idiot that does not read. One of the main reasons for that Russian effort was to seed divisions in the USA. So you are indeed helping for that. Putin and henchmen do not care how that division came about, they just want to increase it. ---
**Author:** ![Lemur866](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lemur866/32/434_2.png) [@Lemur866](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lemur866)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2018, 6:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/black-panther-movie/809075/206 "2018-02-26T18:23:36Z")
The real reason Wakanda doesn’t share it’s technology with the rest of the world is so that Wakanda can be a super-science enclave while the rest of the world is pretty much the regular rest of the world. Comic books are stuffed to the gills with lone geniuses, lost cities, isolated countries, time travelers, hidden valleys, remote monasteries, subterranean lairs, and faraway planets that have technology that would change Earth’s technology instantly. Except none of it ever does, because the background setting has to remain normal baseline Earth, rather than some alternate timeline Earth. Every story that would change history can’t change history, instead it has be to shoehorned into real history so everything happens exactly the same except the fantastic things that happened in the story. So Wakanda is a super-science enclave. Why don’t they share their technology? Because everything outside the super-science enclave has to be the same as regular old planet Earth, even if it makes no sense. It’s the same reason Reed Richards is useless. He can build a Fantasticar for his team, but normal people can’t buy Fantasticars, because if they could the Fantastic Four would exist on normal Earth, they’d be living in an alternate timeline science fiction Earth. Any attempt to make an in-Universe justification for all this is just doomed to failure, because of course it doesn’t make sense. The only way this can be handled even remotely logically is to say that super-scientists don’t actually create new technology via science, it’s all due to their powers. Doctor Impossible can build an army of robots, but they only work because his powers make them work. Once he stops making them work, you open them up and they’re stuffed with old beer cans and apple cores. ---
**Author:** ![Crybaby\_Boobie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/crybaby_boobie/32/545_2.png) [@Crybaby\_Boobie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Crybaby_Boobie)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2018, 7:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/black-panther-movie/809075/207 "2018-02-26T19:17:44Z")
> [@andros](#): > > In no universe is this accurate. It’s also from Reggie Hudlin’s run which was, truth be told, awful. Except for the art. ---
**Author:** ![WillFarnaby](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/willfarnaby/32/514_2.png) [@WillFarnaby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WillFarnaby)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2018, 7:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/black-panther-movie/809075/208 "2018-02-26T19:29:36Z")
> [@GIGObuster](#): > > Still an ignoramus, it was indeed cheap because it required the creation of free accounts in social media. And also it was basically slave labor. Still that means that a lot of people were involved. > And now you are just an useful idiot that does not read. > > One of the main reasons for that Russian effort was to seed divisions in the USA. So you are indeed helping for that. Putin and henchmen do not care how that division came about, they just want to increase it. Whenever someone uses the phrase “basically slave labor”, you can be sure he is a bullshitter. Believe me, I need no help from Putin to be divided from the war propagandists. Indeed I haven’t fundamentally changed my position on Russia in many years. It is the authoritarian leftist activists like yourself that are responsible for the divide because you have joined the conservatives in reciting war propaganda. You continue to excommunicate leftists over the issue, see Gabbard, Greenwald, Assange, Snowden, and Manning. Y’all nuts. ---
**Author:** ![GIGObuster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gigobuster/32/421_2.png) [@GIGObuster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GIGObuster)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2018, 7:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/black-panther-movie/809075/209 "2018-02-26T19:50:15Z")
> [@WillFarnaby](#): > > Whenever someone uses the phrase “basically slave labor”, you can be sure he is a bullshitter. > > Believe me, I need no help from Putin to be divided from the war propagandists. Indeed I haven’t fundamentally changed my position on Russia in many years. It is the authoritarian leftist activists like yourself that are responsible for the divide because you have joined the conservatives in reciting war propaganda. You continue to excommunicate leftists over the issue, see Gabbard, Greenwald, Assange, Snowden, and Manning. Y’all nuts. Please continue Governor… In reality you are again just showing all what an idiot you are. Assange, for example, was found to fall for the Russian hackers. At best a useful unwilling tool for the Russians. > **[Mueller Questions RNC About Trump Campaign's Data](https://www.newsweek.com/mueller-investigation-trump-kushner-rnc-data-us-voters-760833)** > > Did the Trump campaign and Russia share data to target U.S. voters? RNC staffers might have the answer. ---
**Author:** ![SlackerInc](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slackerinc/32/275_2.png) [@SlackerInc](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SlackerInc)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2018, 8:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/black-panther-movie/809075/210 "2018-02-26T20:35:46Z")
> [@kivvik](#): > > I imagine a large part of why they did not allow the world to even taste their superior tech was due to their long history of isolationism, from which they watched the rest of the continent be colonized and oppressed, and from which they learned that there were a lot of people out there willing to kill for just basic raw materials such as gold. What would they do for Vibranium and its associated advances? Nope, better to keep out of sight, out of mind, nothing to see here… I imagine many explorers were killed or captured before they developed their city-stealthing fields. And later on, they would maintain that isolation, because the world views them as nothing, a backwater nation of farmers and herdsfolk, so allowing others access to their advances would be suspicious, and draw unwanted attention to their country. Where did these farmers get this tech? What secrets lie in Wakanda? If any of their tech slipped out, and was traced back to them, how many more people like Klaue would try to sneak in? Would other, more powerful forces try, and force the Wakandans to show their hand even more as they defend their nation? They were not ready to risk the world trying to batter down their doors for their secrets. A nation this advanced couldn’t use its spies to give scientists in Asia or the West the cure for cancer without it being traced to them? Come on. Last I checked, we still aren’t even sure who was behind the anthrax attacks of the early 2000’s. And in this case, there would be no data about what strains came from what labs and so on. ---
**Author:** ![iiandyiiii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/iiandyiiii/32/7924_2.png) [@iiandyiiii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iiandyiiii)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2018, 8:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/black-panther-movie/809075/211 "2018-02-26T20:42:39Z")
> [@SlackerInc](#): > > A nation this advanced couldn’t use its spies to give scientists in Asia or the West the cure for cancer without it being traced to them? Come on. Last I checked, we still aren’t even sure who was behind the anthrax attacks of the early 2000’s. And in this case, there would be no data about what strains came from what labs and so on. I think the whole point of the conflict in the movie, and T’Challa’s ultimate shift in governing philosophy, highlight that Wakanda was wrong to have wholly isolated itself, and should play some role in helping those it can help. If this fictional country has sinned, its sins are orders of magnitude less than the sins of colonial and imperial powers (including the US). Not sharing one’s own wealth is far, far less evil than plundering the wealth (and bodies!) of others. ---
**Author:** ![VinylTurnip](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/b2d939/32.png) [@VinylTurnip](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/VinylTurnip)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2018, 9:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/black-panther-movie/809075/212 "2018-02-26T21:09:29Z")
> [@WillFarnaby](#): > > Believe me, I need no help from Putin to be divided from the war propagandists. Indeed I haven’t fundamentally changed my position on Russia in many years. It is the authoritarian leftist activists like yourself that are responsible for the divide because you have joined the conservatives in reciting war propaganda. You continue to excommunicate leftists over the issue, see Gabbard, Greenwald, Assange, Snowden, and Manning. Y’all nuts. That’s all the time we have for _Black Panther_. Tune in next week for another movie capsule review from **Will** “Statey McStateface” **Farnaby**! Or, even better: don’t. ---
**Author:** ![SlackerInc](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slackerinc/32/275_2.png) [@SlackerInc](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SlackerInc)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2018, 11:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/black-panther-movie/809075/213 "2018-02-26T23:16:20Z")
> [@iiandyiiii](#): > > If this fictional country has sinned, its sins are orders of magnitude less than the sins of colonial and imperial powers (including the US). Not sharing one’s own wealth is far, far less evil than plundering the wealth (and bodies!) of others. It was wrong for colonial powers to treat native African people as “less than” in the administraion of the justice system and so on. But anticolonialists have painted a black-and-white image of the legacy of colonial rule when the truth includes a lot of grey. There was a great deal of advancement of the economy and infrastructure that the British Empire left behind when it voluntarily surrendered rule of its African colonies, including my country of birth Kenya. That included a very nice railroad which I enjoyed riding on as a teenager. But due to their pride, native Kenyans were so loath to simply maintain that one, they insisted on building their own to replace it—and needlessly went billions into debt on the project. Anyway, speaking of Kenya, it appears from what LHOD linked in the other thread that at least two prominent Kenyan writers did react much as I expected: [https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/global-opinions/wp/2018/02/26/black-panther-offers-a-regressive-neocolonial-vision-of-africa/?hpid=hp\_no-name\_opinion-card-f%3Ahomepage%2Fstory&utm\_term=.fe3429d2be8a](https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/global-opinions/wp/2018/02/26/black-panther-offers-a-regressive-neocolonial-vision-of-africa/?hpid=hp_no-name_opinion-card-f%3Ahomepage%2Fstory&utm_term=.fe3429d2be8a) I highly recommend clicking through to the piece linked near the end, referring to the other Kenyan writer. That one is less negative, seeing many positive attributes of the film; but it also makes some very good points I hadn’t thought of—like, why is there so little African music in the film? Why no African premiere? I also literally laughed out loud when he said the grab bag approach of mixing and matching cultural references was like “African bingo”. ---
**Author:** ![iiandyiiii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/iiandyiiii/32/7924_2.png) [@iiandyiiii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iiandyiiii)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2018, 11:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/black-panther-movie/809075/214 "2018-02-26T23:28:07Z")
> [@SlackerInc](#): > > It was wrong for colonial powers to treat native African people as “less than” in the administraion of the justice system and so on. But anticolonialists have painted a black-and-white image of the legacy of colonial rule when the truth includes a lot of grey. There was a great deal of advancement of the economy and infrastructure that the British Empire left behind when it voluntarily surrendered rule of its African colonies, including my country of birth Kenya. That included a very nice railroad which I enjoyed riding on as a teenager. But due to their pride, native Kenyans were so loath to simply maintain that one, they insisted on building their own to replace it—and needlessly went billions into debt on the project. > > Anyway, speaking of Kenya, it appears from what LHOD linked in the other thread that at least two prominent Kenyan writers did react much as I expected: [https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/global-opinions/wp/2018/02/26/black-panther-offers-a-regressive-neocolonial-vision-of-africa/?hpid=hp\_no-name\_opinion-card-f%3Ahomepage%2Fstory&utm\_term=.fe3429d2be8a](https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/global-opinions/wp/2018/02/26/black-panther-offers-a-regressive-neocolonial-vision-of-africa/?hpid=hp_no-name_opinion-card-f%3Ahomepage%2Fstory&utm_term=.fe3429d2be8a) > > I highly recommend clicking through to the piece linked near the end, referring to the other Kenyan writer. That one is less negative, seeing many positive attributes of the film; but it also makes some very good points I hadn’t thought of—like, why is there so little African music in the film? Why no African premiere? I also literally laughed out loud when he said the grab bag approach of mixing and matching cultural references was like “African bingo”. I have no problem with criticism of the movie from an African perspective, and won’t quibble with any of it. I’ll strongly disagree with your characterization of the legacy of colonialism – any snippets of good are massively overwhelmed, a million to one, by the incredible brutality it wrought. A railroad doesn’t make up for mass torture, murder, and rape. ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [February 26, 2018, 11:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/black-panther-movie/809075/215 "2018-02-26T23:48:04Z")
I figure the mishmash of styles helps demonstrate that the Wakandans are not especially creative. Given the degree of determined isolation, we shouldn’t be seeing generic African cultural touchstones, but freaky-deaky stuff that exists nowhere else on Earth. ---
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2018, 2:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/black-panther-movie/809075/216 "2018-02-27T02:05:53Z")
> [@iiandyiiii](#): > > I have no problem with criticism of the movie from an African perspective, and won’t quibble with any of it. > > I’ll strongly disagree with your characterization of the legacy of colonialism – any snippets of good are massively overwhelmed, a million to one, by the incredible brutality it wrought. A railroad doesn’t make up for mass torture, murder, and rape. I encourage you to read that article, as well, because it’s got nothing whatsofuckinever to do with Slacker’s shitty political analysis. ---
**Author:** ![SlackerInc](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slackerinc/32/275_2.png) [@SlackerInc](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SlackerInc)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2018, 2:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/black-panther-movie/809075/217 "2018-02-27T02:18:13Z")
> [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](#): > > I encourage you to read that article, as well, because it’s got nothing whatsofuckinever to do with Slacker’s shitty political analysis. I’m trying to think of something more rhetorically cowardly than taking potshots at someone from behind the little “safe space” created by blocking them, as you ostentatiously made sure everyone knew you had done. Have it both ways much, **LHOD**? Oh well, it also _cuts_ both ways: you won’t know when I’m holding you up for ridicule either. :dubious: ---
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2018, 2:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/black-panther-movie/809075/218 "2018-02-27T02:46:32Z")
> [@SlackerInc](#): > > I’m trying to think of something more rhetorically cowardly than taking potshots at someone from behind the little “safe space” created by blocking them, as you ostentatiously made sure everyone knew you had done. Have it both ways much, **LHOD**? Oh well, it also _cuts_ both ways: you won’t know when I’m holding you up for ridicule either. :dubious: What the fuck are you even talking about, dumbass? ---
**Author:** ![Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/left_hand_of_dorkness/32/7156_2.png) [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Left_Hand_of_Dorkness)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2018, 3:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/black-panther-movie/809075/219 "2018-02-27T03:18:41Z")
> [@Left\_Hand\_of\_Dorkness](#): > > What the fuck are you even talking about, dumbass? Oh, shit, you whiffed your comprehension check on post 201, didn’t you? Maybe someone else wants to explain it to you. ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [February 27, 2018, 6:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/black-panther-movie/809075/220 "2018-02-27T06:21:38Z")
> [@SlackerInc](#): > > But anticolonialists have painted a black-and-white image of the legacy of colonial rule when the truth includes a lot of grey. Fuck off, you fucking shitstain. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/black-panther-movie/809075.md?page=10) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/black-panther-movie/809075.md?page=12)