Page 2 The Skanner Seattle February 28, 2018
®
Challenging People to Shape
a Better Future Now
Bernie Foster
Founder/Publisher
Was Erik Killmonger Right?
Bobbie Dore Foster
Executive Editor
This commentary contains
major spoilers.
Christen McCurdy
News Editor
Patricia Irvin
Graphic Designer
Monica J. Foster
Seattle Office Coordinator
Susan Fried
Photographer
2017
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d ay ! • L i ke u s o
n F
ac
it
Wakanda is a figment of
imagination. More accurate-
ly, Wakanda is a creation of
White imagination. Killmon-
ger is “our” reality.
A fictional Wakanda is con-
venient for the consciousness
of the colonizer. A fictional,
technologically
advanced,
African utopia lightens the
weight of oppression by using
the singular case of Black ex-
cellence, embodied in Wakan-
da, as the benchmark instead
of a beautiful, aspirational
anomaly. It then places the re-
sponsibility of reconciliation
on the backs of the oppressed.
Champions of truth must
not only embrace the tri-
umphs of our history, but also
the painful, complicated facts
of our past.
Erik Killmonger represents
an uncomfortable truth. He
is the Black Panther’s kryp-
tonite. The pain of Killmon-
ger’s conflicted reality dis-
rupts T’Challa’s idealistic,
progressive world. The ulti-
mate victory of Black Panther
is only secured through a
cinematic miracle. Even then,
the Black Panther cannot find
it in himself to end the life of
Killmonger; it is Killmonger
himself who chooses his own
end after his final battle with
T’Challa.
“Bury me in the ocean with
my ancestors who jumped
from ships, because they
knew death was better than
bondage,” Killmonger said in
his final scene as he watched
the sunset on Wakanda.
T
LOCAL NEWS
BRIEFS
ebo
o k • learn • co
TheSkannerNews
m
me
•
nts
arvel’s big screen ad-
aptation of “Black Pan-
ther” has surpassed
all initial expectations
of its debut and topped $700
million after its second week-
end.
“In terms of raw dollars,
it is the second-biggest sec-
ond weekend gross of all
time between Universal/
Comcast Corp.’s  Jurassic
World  ($106.5m) and Lu-
casfilm’s  The Force Awak-
ens  ($149m),” Forbes.com
reported. “It has now earned
$400m in ten days of release,
which makes it the third-fast-
est grosser of all time (for
now) behind only  Jurassic
World ($404m) and The Force
Awakens ($540m).”
If anything, the success of
“Black Panther” and “Girl’s
Trip,” last year, has proven to
the world that representation
and inclusion is profitable.
When I went to see Black
Panther during the open-
ing weekend, the excitement
from the crowd radiated
throughout the theater’s lob-
by. The joy I inhaled while
standing in line to enter the
theater took me higher than
a preacher’s Sunday sermon.
The drums and opening
verse to Kendrick Lamar’s
“Black Panther” echoed in my
head:
King of my city, king of
my country, king of my
homeland
King of the filthy, king of the
fallen, we livin’ again
King of the shooters, looters,
boosters, and ghettos poppin’
King of the past, present,
future, my ancestors watchin
I loved the film, but all of
us should remember that
Centuries of resilience isn’t
some kind of honor; it is sim-
ply survival.
Although we would all like
for Wakanda to exist, today,
it doesn’t. The painful truth is
that Black people were force-
fully dispersed throughout
the globe; isolated from our
culture, countries and fam-
ilies. The painful truth is
that the campaign of carnage
that White people have lead
“
Centuries
of resilience
isn’t some
kind of hon-
or; it is simply
survival
across the globe cannot be
reconciled through broad aid
and well-intentioned commu-
nity centers.
Partnership and collabo-
ration, two of the many un-
derlying themes of the film,
prove elusive for Killmonger.
The love between Okoye and
W’Kabi ended civil war. The
connection between the spir-
itual world and technology is
the lifeline of the nation. The
cooperation of M’Baku and
Ramonda brought hope back
to life. And, the love between
Nakia and the T’Challa is slat-
ed to save the world.
Killmonger was not be-
stowed the privilege of part-
nership.
My knowledge of comic
book adaptations is limited to
Superman and the X-Men; in
both movie franchises, char-
acters faced deep moral de-
cisions. These decisions are
most often a test of character
or weight of priority. These
films, set in city centers, of-
ten display massive property
damaged and presumed loss
of innocent life. However, the
central internal conflict in
Black Panther centered upon
killing the radical pursuit of
freedom.
Killmonger is a villain of
White culture; the worst
nightmare of the ruling class.
Killmonger is the rage of a
millions of people who were
displaced, disregarded, and
discarded. “The Black Pan-
ther” is a fictional depiction
of the moral consciousness
of Black people; the hope for
both the oppressed and the
oppressor. He is the grace of
God to a people undeserving.
Mainstream dialogue on
race relations in the United
States naively suggests that
White people simply refuse to
acknowledge that the crimes
of American slavery and the
Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade
continue to fuel significant
disparities across the planet.
I would argue that they are
fully aware of their crimes,
but interpret them through
a filtered lens of conquest. I
would argue that White peo-
ple’s conscious relegation of
persons of color is reduced to
collateral damage necessary
to maintain power, wealth,
and leadership.
As Killmonger fell, I longed
for a Black Panther/Killmon-
ger partnership. The partner-
ship of rage and compassion,
of power and responsibility,
of justice and reconciliation
deserves exploration. Resolv-
ing the conflict between the
Black Panther and Killmon-
ger is the precarious tight
rope that Black folks must
walk to freedom.
Killmonger’s death is also
a figment of White people’s
imagination; his conflicted
fight for freedom lives on in
the hearts of Black people
across the globe.
NFL Season Marred by Controversy
SPECIAL ISSUE:
BACK TO SCHOOL
August 16
to
y •
Lynette
Monroe
NNPA Guest
Columnist
M
Jerry Foster
Advertising Manager
in y o u r c o m m u n
Opinion
his season, however, I
took a complete break
from watching the NFL
and, as a result, missed
the game entirely.
While the coup de grace
was the exiling of quarter-
back Colin Kaepernick by the
NFL owners, I have to con-
fess that this break has been
coming for a while. In 2013,
when it was announced that
Heisman Trophy winner and
former Dallas Cowboys and
Denver Broncos player Tony
Dorsett had been diagnosed
with chronic traumatic en-
cephalopathy (a brain disease
afflicting many former foot-
ball players) I took it very per-
sonally. Dorsett and I are the
same age and there were ways
that I felt as if we were old
friends, despite never having
met. Watching him on televi-
sion, year after year, it almost
felt as if we had grown up to-
gether.
Dorsett’s diagnosis brought
Bill
Fletcher Jr.
The Global
African
home the catastrophic side of
football, a side that I had both
acknowledged and denied for
years. But when it afflicted
someone with whom I iden-
tified, it became very real. It
“
son confronted an addition-
al crisis with the apparent
blacklisting of Colin Kaeper-
nick as a response to his pro-
tests against police brutality
and injustice in the Black
community. This blacklisting
touched a raw nerve for much
of Black America. My moth-
er, who can outdo about any-
one when it comes to being a
football fan, refused to watch
any football this season. I was
stunned, to be honest, though
I knew that she was a staunch
Are football players—and other
athletes—supposed to be mindless
performers who are not entitled
to express their views
led me to question my choic-
es, including, had I had a son,
would I have supported or
opposed their playing college
and/or professional football?
Of course, the 2017 NFL sea-
supporter of Kaepernick.
As far as she was concerned,
enough was enough.
I get the feeling that the
NFL is standing on the edge
of a major crisis. The combi-
nation of the injuries—and
how the NFL has addressed
them—and the protests, into
which Donald Trump has in-
tervened, have raised ques-
tions about the future of pro-
fessional football.
Are football players to be
our so-called gladiators,
used up and spit out by a sys-
tem flowing in money? Are
football players—and oth-
er athletes—supposed to be
mindless performers who
are not entitled to express
their views, even when such
an expression does not in-
fringe on the rights of others?
These seem to me to be the
questions confronting the
owners; the National Football
League Players Association
(the union that represents the
players); and the fans. And it
is the fans who, unfortunate-
ly, regularly tune out on any
of the truly burning issues
confronting the players on
any given Sunday.
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eve