I know that you are excited about Black Panther. I know that all the memes that Black Tumblr and Black Twitter are creating are hilarious and wonderful, as is all media we create. After all, it’s already the best Marvel movie ever made, with the most beautiful cast, and the most perfect costumes and special effects.
That being said though… please think long and hard about how you talk about characters in this movie. T’challa is not your bae. Killmonger is not your precious son. Shuri is not your wife. Absolutely none of the characters are your children or your smol anything. Most specifically? The characters AREN’T YOURS.
The language of anti-black racism is often couched in terms of infantilization and ownership. I don’t give a shit if you’re just putting it in tags, be careful how you interact textually and mentally with black characters.
Black Panther is a movie for black people. Sure, a lot of people are going to see it, but this movie is, for many a black nerd, a lifelong dream. It’s ours, and while you get to share it, you don’t get to fucking claim it.
The MCU fandom already turns black characters into mammys and servants and sidekicks for their white favs, and it’s bullshit. You turn black pain into plot points for your white favs. Basically you have a long history of treating black characters like shit, and I’m here to tell you to cut that shit out.
Your white favs do not belong in Wakanda. They don’t belong there in meta, in head canons, in fic.
The only reason Buckwheat Barnes gets to be there is because he’s currently being used as a decorative ice sculpture for state dinners.
You have literally the rest of the entire fucking MCU, go play in that sandbox and leave Wakanda alone.
Love,
Me, and Black Fans Everywhere Who Are Tired of Your Shit
P.S. I know y’all won’t listen and a bunch of you are gonna get your panties in a twist over this, but let this serve as a letter of notice that I will come for you if I see even a HINT of White Nonsense™ on posts about Black Panther and it’s cast.
I am reblogging this from @athynaoswald because her notes were flawless and I want to share. White people, this is what “getting it” looks like.
#a lot of the responses seem to be taking this as discouraging white people from seeing or enjoying black panther #but like as a white person reading ops post this says to me go see and enjoy this movie and be respectful of the characters
#the thing about infantalizing especially cause like yeah that’s a way a lot of people including me interact with characters in general #calling them smol or precious but like from what I have read that has a whole different context when it comes to black characters #because of racism and historical contexts like op said
#and then also just ya know not using wakanda as a playground for white people seems pretty simple to me #like ah yes let’s put all my white characters into wakanda seems too close to colonization
#tldr op isn’t saying don’t see the movie they’re saying be responsible with how you engage with fiction
You, my friend, get it, and are invited to come to the opening night showing of Black Panther.
“It’s an important show, and we were just very fortunate. The book came out in 2001. We wrapped before the inauguration and all kinds of shit hit the fan, to be quite honest. We were just fortunate that we happened to feature all these themes in our show. And it’s very important that we don’t make this normal, this kind of way of life that we seem to be living at the moment. We were like, ‘Never gonna happen.’ But it did! ‘It’s not gonna get worse.’ It did! ‘Yeah, but they don’t do that.’ They did! That can’t ever, ever, ever, ever become normal, where we’re just like, ugh, what’s happening today? No. Excuse my language, fuck that. No.
I was really inspired yesterday morning.
I was in the gym, and a soldier was talking to me, and he said, ‘I didn’t put my life on the line for anyone to tell people–free people, never mind the president–what they’re allowed to kneel for in their life.’ It’s not about the flag. It’s not about the anthem. Colin Kaepernick and all these sports stars love America. They love the flag. They love the anthem. It’s never been about that, and we need to focus on what it’s about. And with our show, we’re keeping stuff in conversation which needs to be happening. We’re talking about immigration. We’re talking about racism, sexism. We’re talking about homophobia. We’re talking about gay rights. We’re talking about gun control. All of this stuff matters. All of this stuff cannot be normal. We need to be having these conversations every day. And not just having conversations–how about we start making stuff happen?” [x]
lotta people saying “yeah but also 20 year olds also shouldnt hit on 14 year olds!”
yeah, 20 year olds know that, and the 20 year olds who arent shitty people respect that.
but 14 year olds don’t really think to stop themselves from getting crushes and hitting on people way older than them. it makes people like me who are 18+ feel super uncomfortable.
it’s flattering, sure, but it still makes me feel weird.
good lord the ppl fuckin intentionally misinterpreting the point of this post so they can pat themselves on the back for pretendin they’re destroying an act of injustice. lemme break this down for u
here’s what the usual scenario would be
heres what people have been misinterpreting this complaint to be about
there are infinite responses ‘countering’ the post by saying that “it’s the adult’s job to shut the child down,” which is insinuating that 1) we’re talking about adult-child relationships, and 2) that the post is claiming children are at fault for them. except we’re talking about a child engaging in flirting outside their age group, and that they should stop this behavior.
what u seem to be forgetting is that, yknow, context matters. @paper-mario-wiki made this post as someone with tens of thousands of followers, and the event that prompted it was me complaining to him about my own experiences, as someone with also tens of thousands of followers. so its more like this
add onto that that we’re dating, and that a lot of young teen/tween girls really like to latch onto internet personalities AND gay relationships, and u got 2 prime fuckin targets for a lot of unwanted attention. {to be clear: a lot of young teenage girls seeking a relationship.} it gets particularly less tolerable when the kid takes to more drastic measures for attention, like private messaging, sharing photos, and trying to engage in inappropriate behaviors they think will make them be taken more seriously.
a lot of people tried to argue that our concern should be that the kids might do this frequently with other adults and get themselves into serious danger, and that we should be more focused on letting them know it’s wrong. you’re completely right! we should! we should communicate to them that this behavior should stop! here, lemme whip up a quick post about it.
perfect
the point of this was to gently lay the word down on a website that’s particularly popular with that crowd. the fact that so many people are reaching so far as to claim that this is fucking pedophilia apologist is like, gut-wrenchingly awful. shame on you for making such a serious accusation like that out of a post that could not have even mildly insinuated that somehow a child is at fault in an abusive predatory relationship.
im disgusted bc you and i both know damn well that’s not what was being said, and yet you took it as a chance to put those words in his mouth so you could make yourself feel good for berating him.
anyways, i stand by the initial point of the post 100%. if you’re a minor, do not try to appeal to people who are beyond your age group. you are going to instantly make them uncomfortable not only because of the unsolicited attention but also because you are putting them in an incredibly awkward position due to your age and the nature of the conversation.
it’s not their job to have that discussion with a child about what’s inappropriate and why. don’t put that on them. for everyones sake, dont flirt with adults.
Pass Through Fire 