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Writer's pictureNick Saward

"Wakanda Forever!" The Political Context Of Black Panther.



During the production of Black Panther, America were coming of the service of one of the most influential Presidents to serve, Barack Obama, and were being placed in the now hands of Donald J Trump, Possibly one of the most controversial if not the most in American President history. In this blogpost I will show the political context for the movie Black Panther and show influence some of the ideologies and traits of the movie itself.

Barack Obama


Barack Obama was the first African American President of the United States. His actions to support the black community were endless, from My Brother Keeper and the Obama Foundation to offering a role model to all African Americans.

In a worlds first in America, People were seeing a change in society with the new introduction of the first African American President. Together Obama and his family offered role models for the black community and a hope that one day they could achieve the same as they have. Together Obama and his family visited less able black communities to offer their support and hope for the future of the African American youth. Barack Obama showed the Black community is was possible. His speeches were mesmerising, the moment Obama would speak, the world would listen. This trait helped Obama to spread the words for equality across the whole of America and fought for the future of the black community.


My Brothers Keeper

My Brothers Keeper was a foundation started by Obama with the aim of keeping the minority youth of the streets and out of trouble. Its goal is to build safe, supported communities for the minority youth and to provide them with the future the American dream had promised them. MBK founded in 2014, Was a nation wide campaign to create a safe environment for all minorities of the USA. Obama put countless resources to fund this charity and create it a safe place for all people to be in. After Barack had finished his term he merged MBK with the Obama foundation and to this day continues to provide a safe place for all races and ethnicities to reside and live. The MBK charity helped shape the lives and influenced millions of minorities across America if not the world.

“I have always believed that the single most important task we have as a nation is to make sure our young people can go as far as their dreams and hard work will take them. It is the single most important thing we can do for our country’s future. And we’ve got to do it together.”

PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA

Overall, Barack Obama and his family played a huge role in the political context of the movie Black Panther and influenced many of the scenes of the movie and the storyline as a whole.

Donald J. Trump

Donald trump was the 45th President of America and if anything reversed all the help that Obama worked so hard to provide the black community with. Donald Trump is an all round controversial figure with multiple things that came back to haunted him during his term as President. During his campaign Trump was accused of being racist on multiple fronts. His response to this was "I am the least racist person." Donald J. Trump. Trump had also attacked other minorities such as the LGBTQ+ Community. Furthermore Trump revoked some of the vital civil right laws that hold up society today.

  • Rescinding a proposed Obama-era rule that would have required more justification for public housing agencies seeking to demolish public housing projects.

  • Reversing a three-year-old Justice Department policy that protected transgender workers from discrimination under federal law.

  • Revoking 72 policy documents that outline the rights of students with disabilities.

  • Banning transgender people from serving in the military in any capacity.

  • Guidance says states can decide whether to accommodate transgender students

Our military must be focused on decisive and overwhelming victory and cannot be burdened with the tremendous medical costs and disruption that transgender in the military would entail.

President Donald Trump's announcement on Twitter in 2017

Although these do not directly effect the black community, it is representative of the power Trump has to destroy the black community with a few simple decisions. This shows the lack of professionalism of this president, making an important statement on a social media site oppose to in the news like many presidents before him. This shows how dangerous this man can be to the black community and the terror that he raged suppressing the minorities like a Dictator would.

Overall, Trumps contribution to the political context, Although not a good one, Shows the bad in society and the prejudice against the minorities. Trump may have influenced the evil motives in the movie Black Panther.

Black lives matter movement

The BLM movement was an American born civil rights movement and came after the community had enough of the police brutality against the black minority. After the death of innocent black youths such as...

  • Eric Garner





  • Freddie Gray






The murdering of these innocent youths caused outrage within the black community and sparked a lethal amount of Black Lives Matter Protest with the aim of seeking out those officers with a prejudice towards the black minority. However the Black Lives Matter protests were not always best represented by the media. With media calling them Mobs or Violent Protesters. This was another act of prejudice towards the black community and an attempt to

supress their voices. The Hashtag #Blm became a world known movement with even celebrity's showing their support for the movement such as Alex Rodriguez & Jennifer Lopez Showing their support on the streets protesting with the BLM Movement to show their dedicated support to the movement.

Overall, the Black Lives Matter Protests have influenced movies and documentaries since its beginning however, May have influenced the plot and storyline of Black Panther.




Overall

Overall, I believe all of these factors contribute to what Black Panther had envisioned and used these episodes to influence the film and storyline itself. All of these events may of or did influence the creation of Black panther and shows how the political context of the World could Shape the biggest, most ideological filled movie of the 20th century. The Political context has such a huge influence in the creation of a movie. It is fascinating how the movie takes these political issues and views and incorporates them into the movie itself. Under the entertainment factor of movies, such as black panther, they hold am deeper meaning, a reflection of society and todays issues. It is important for movies to take in to account of these issues we all face on a daily basis and represent them for a better understanding of our society whilst watching an alternative one in the media.

Below is a video that raises political problems and the racial politics in marvel itself.






















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