Race Relations In The Film: The Black Panther Party

997 Words2 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: History of racism in the usa

The history of race relations in America and Europe have been documented in many ways throughout the past 600 years. The stories are so horrific that people often use art portray their ideas. Most recently through the film, Black Panther, the audience is presented with a story that is reflective of the Black Panther Party, western colonialism, and a debate over the proper means of liberation. The motion picture takes place in a fictional, utopian, African country called Wakanda where there is a precious metal called vibranium. Vibranium has many powers that help heal injuries, fuel technology, and instills strength into everything it is woven into. The story has two main characters T’Challa, the King and protagonist, and Killmonger, cousin of T’Challa, Wakandan, and the antagonist. T’Challa and Killmonger lived very different lives, and Killmonger faced many more challenges in the United …show more content…

It is symbolic of the Black Panther Party, an organization that advocated for black power and black liberation. The Black Panther Party was formed in 1966 in Oakland, California. This is also the location where the movie began. The relationships between the film and the political group did not end here. Many of the debates T’Challa and Killmonger had over expansionism and liberation were the same debates that happened within the Black Panther Party. All members of the organization wanted black liberation, but there was a divide between those who were just fighting for equality and those who were fighting to overthrow the U.S government (Serwer). T’Challa claimed that he wanted true equality for all people of color; however, he didn’t think it was his duty to arm the world with vibranium. He was the King of Wakanda, not the King of the World. Killmonger, on the other hand, wanted to liberate and dominate through the spread of vibranium. He wanted more than freedom and equality. He wanted total dominance and

Show More
Related

  • Henry David Thoreau - Conservationist, Visionary, and Humanist

    2242 Words  | 5 Pages

    but most of all he wanted to live with freedom to think and act as he

    Read More

  • Public Enemy Addresses Problems of the Black Community

    2578 Words  | 6 Pages

    “My job is to write shocking lyrics that will wake people up,” said Chuck D. This was his goal as the leader of Public Enemy (Dery, 1990). He wrote lyrics that were awakening and energizing. Public Enemy was a spokesperson for the African American community. Their lyrics contain controversial and popular issues such as drugs, crime, racism, and poverty. As well as the lyrics, the instrumentals are significant to conveying the group’s goal. The instrumental/sound part creates the mood, sets the beat, and prompts the engagementengages of the people. In the late 1980’s, Public Enemy introduced an intense, hard, hip-hop sound, which changed the sound of hip-hop. According to Rolling Stone magazine, “Public Enemy’s inventive production team, the Bomb Squad, tailored a unique, noisy, layered avant-garde-inspired sound that incorporated sirens, skittering turntable scratches, and cleverly juxtaposed musical and spoken samples ” (Simon & Schuster, 2001). All these brand new sounds of their songs were musically revolutionary during the late 1980’s. Public Enemy’s music consists of inspirational lyrics as well as strong and innovative sound. The lyrics and the sound work together, in addition to visual media to make it possible to reach millions of people as political commentary.

    Read More

  • In The Film: A Class Apart, A Struggle For Educational Equality, And African American

    710 Words  | 2 Pages

    After having viewed a few films in Chicano History class like A Class Apart, A Struggle for Educational Equality, and Latin and African Americans: Friends or foes, one cannot help but wonder how it is possible that you might be learning about the intense racism towards Latinos the United States for the very first time after having devoted your life to the American country. I, myself was born and raised in Arizona, a state south of the United States, in the city of Tucson that lies about only an hour away, or around 68 miles away from the Nogales, Sonora, Mexican border. One would assume to know a sufficient amount of history of the neighbor land or at least be aware of some fundamental facts about America and Mexico 's relationship throughout

    Read More

  • Racism In The Movie Pleasantville

    2331 Words  | 5 Pages

    According to Newman in Sociology: The Architecture of Everyday Life, a social class “consists of people who occupy similar positions of power, privilege, and prestige” (Newman, 2012). Someone’s position in a social class can affect “virtually every aspect of their lives, including political preferences, sexual behavior, religious affiliation, diet, and life expectancy” (Newman, 2012). The social class that was represented in the film was the middle-class. The show, Pleasantville, portrays the 1950s in which the wife would stay at home cooking and cleaning while the father works. This show holds similar views to the show, Leave it to Beaver. The movie begins

    Read More

  • The Role Of Black Women In The Film Imitation Of Life?

    1167 Words  | 3 Pages

    After watching Imitation of Life, it becomes quite clear that the race and gender of a person affects them gravely. These intersectional forms of oppression help to determine how society will treat a person, and how a person may treat/view themselves. Debuting in 1959, issues displayed within this film are still present within society in 2015. As woman are discriminated against, so are Black people, and while being a White woman in a patriarchal society holds some restrictions and privileges, being a Black woman in an racist patriarchal society welcomes constant hardships of struggles. Both within this film and in reality, issues concerning the way both White and Black women are treated and the roles they are allowed to play on screen (during

    Read More

  • William Penn and the Quakers

    1275 Words  | 3 Pages

    Besides freedom of religion, they wanted freedom of speech, worship and assembly, refusal to go to war or take oath, and equality of the sexes and social classes.3

    Read More

  • NAACP And The Crisis

    1146 Words  | 3 Pages

    Students form student government associations to represent and voice the needs and wants of the student body. Rappers travel with entourages, and preachers have amen corners. Surrounding one's self with a cluster of like-minded individuals creates a comfortable atmosphere, that fosters confidence, and makes an individual and his/her ideas appear more credible. People have a tendency to connect with others that have common interests and goals. It is easier to fight for a particular cause, when there are people in your corner, who believe in what you believe in. This has been the case throughout history. Baptist Students created the Baptist Student Alliance (BSA), Homosexuals join GLAAD, the Gay and Lesbian Alliance Against Deformation and women in the LWV (League of Women Voter's) fight for women's rights and encourage active participation of citizens in government. Black people have participated in and created numerous movements and organizations as well. Marcus Garvey's Back to Africa campaign instilled a sense of pride in black people who quoted the Garvey coined phrase "Black is Beautiful." The Black Panther's militant views excited black folk, and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference was a major player in the civil rights movement. Individuals dedicate themselves and their time to organization in order to encourage and create positive change. Though organizations provide structure and a support system they often face their own set of issues, while trying to solve the big problem.

    Read More

  • Black Panther Party

    2267 Words  | 5 Pages

    Founded on October 15th 1966 in Oakland, California, the Black Panther Party for Self Defense was an organization opposed to police brutality against the black community. The Party’s political origins were in Maoism, Marxism, and the radical militant ideals of Malcolm X and Che Guevara. From the doctrines of Maoism they saw the role of their Party as the frontline of the revolution and worked to establish a unified alliance, while from Marxism they addressed the capitalist economic system, and exemplified the need for all workers to forcefully take over means of production (Baggins, Brian). Mao was important to the Black Panthers because of his different stance on Marxism-Leninism when applied to Chinese peasants. The founders of the Black Panther Party, Huey P. Newton and Bobby Seale saw links between the Chinese peasants and the oppression of blacks in America and used Mao’s “little red book” as a guideline for social revolution (Baggins, Brian).

    Read More

  • The Movement that Revolutionized the Civil Rights: Black Panthers

    1327 Words  | 3 Pages

    The Black Panther Movement made a progressive contribution to the US and civil rights. In order for a person to understand what the Civil Rights movement was, they would need to understand what political movements were involved, that made a big impact on the Black Community. What was the Civil Rights movement? The Civil Rights movement lasted from the late 1960s and early 1970s. But, the Civil Rights was not born during that time. When Abraham Lincoln was President, he had signed an agreement named the Emancipation Proclamation. This Proclamation was addressed to emancipate all of the slaves that were written on paper. If they were to leave their job as a slave they would have had no where to go and no money, so they still worked for their previous slave owners to get paid and have a life of their own. Other than Abraham Lincoln, who practically saved the black race, there were many others who were involved in the civil rights. They themselves created their own movement inside the civil rights to help give the black community freedom of speech and to stop the government from what the black community thought was racist.

    Read More

  • A Worn Path: Struggle For Racial Equality

    1517 Words  | 4 Pages

    conditions just so they could achieve freedom. The title is the first of many subtle symbols

    Read More

  • The Black Panther Party Fights for Equality

    675 Words  | 2 Pages

    The Black Panther Party was born to elevate the political, social, and economic status of Blacks. The means the Party advocated in their attempt to advance equality were highly unconventional and radical for the time, such as social programs for under privileged communities and armed resistance as a means of self preservation. The Party made numerous contributions to Black’s situation as well as their esteem, but fell victim to the ‘system’ which finds it nearly impossible to allow Blacks entry into the dominant culture. Thus, the rise and fall of a group of Black radicals, as presented by Elaine Brown in A Taste of Power, can be seen to represent the overall plight of the American Black: a system which finds it impossible to give Blacks equality.

    Read More

  • The New Negro Movement

    955 Words  | 2 Pages

    Shortly after Rachel was written in 1916, the New Negro Movement began to gain traction in the African American community. This broad cultural movement focused on promoting a public image of African Americans as industrious, urban, independent, and distinct from the subservient and illiterate “Old Negro” of the rural South. Unlike his predecessor, the New Negro was self-sufficient, intellectually sophisticated, creative, knowledgeable and proud of his racial heritage (Krasner, Beautiful Pageant 140). While these concepts had been promoted since the turn of the century, it was not until 1917-1918 that they began to crystalize as a concerted effort among African American intellectuals. These men actively supported the creation of black drama because they recognized that “At a time when African Americans had virtually no political recourse, their voice could best be heard through…a creative and humanistic effort to achieve the goal of civil rights by producing positive images of African Americans and promoting activism through art” (“New Negro Movement” 926). The New Negros therefore shared the same overall goal as black intellectuals such as DuBois, but believed that black artists should focus on presenting the reality and beauty of the “black human experience” instead of an idealized vision of what life should be. Ultimately, the transition from “political” art to that which held creativity in high esteem was complex and divisive. Fortunately, just as Dubois emerged as the primary advocate of the former Political Theatre, so too would Alain Locke help guide the New Negros to support the idea of Art Theatre.

    Read More

  • The Black Panther Party

    989 Words  | 2 Pages

    The Black Panther Party was founded on October, 15, 1966 by Bobby Seale and Huey Newton in Oakland, California. This organization was a black revolutionary socialist party that was created to primarily protect African American neighborhoods from violent police brutality. In 1967, the party released and circulated its first newspaper, The Black Panther. Within the same year the organization also protested a ban on weapons in Sacramento on the California State Capitol. After becoming an icon of the 1960's counterculture, the Party was see in numerous cities throughout the nation, with record membership at 10,000 in 1969. Editor of The Black Panther, Eldridge Cleaver and his editorial committee created a document called the Ten-Point Program. This document was comprised of desired wants and needs for the black community, such as; freedom, employment, bread, housing, education, clothing, justice and peace. The Black Panthers expressed their injustices with their saying of, "What we Want, What we Believe". Not only did this document demand specific wants for the panthers, it was also a sign of hope and inspiration for the underprivileged blacks that lived in ghettos across the nation. With a strong passion to turn around the poor black communities, the Panthers installed a variety of community social programs that were made to improve several aspects of the inner city ghettos. Two of their most commonly known programs were its Free Breakfast for children program and its armed citizens patrol that made sure police officers behaved within their limit of power and to protect blacks who became victims of racist police brutality abuse. They also instituted a free medical care program and fought the common problem of young blacks using narco...

    Read More

  • The Black Panther Party

    817 Words  | 2 Pages

    The Black Panthers aren’t talked about much. The Panthers had made a huge difference in the civil rights movement. They were not just a Black KKK. They helped revolutionize the thought of African Americans in the U.S.

    Read More

  • The Importance Of Social Class In The Film

    1233 Words  | 3 Pages

    Social class, as defined by the film, is something that affects who you are as a person. In the film, the people saw class as the defining factor of a person. They saw class as a barrier between people. If one person is in a different class than another person, then obviously, they are not supposed to associate. They allowed their social class to dictate their action each day. It was amazing to me just how much the people in the film allowed their class to truly define them and really serve as a boundary in their life. The people in the film lived their daily life with their social class as the most influential factor. Their worth and value as individuals was not determined by anything else except the amount of money they had. It was really interesting to see how the amount of money a person had somehow equated with their worth in society. The same is true within our society today, but in the film, this aspect was especially evident. The film really shed a light on just how impactful social class is and just how much we allow it to

    Read More

More about Race Relations In The Film: The Black Panther Party

Open Document