Bourgeois Ideology Masquerading as Progressive

Rating: 6/10 (17 February 2018)

Throughout most of Black Panther, the central political antagonism is one between non-violent nativist isolationism (represented by T'Challa and his ruling-class cohort) and pan-African anti-colonial revolutionary struggle (represented by N'Jadaka/Erik Stevens).
The problem with this antagonism is that N'Jadaka, the radical revolutionary and the primary antagonist, is also portrayed as a warmongering maniac (fueled by childhood trauma and motivated by vengeance) who wants to rule over the world. This is precisely what radical anti-colonial thinkers like Frantz Fanon have warned against - the biggest danger of anti-colonial struggle is establishing a new oppressive regime in the place of the old one. In the film, N'Jadaka is trying to do precisely that - to play the colonizer's game against themselves and replace white hegemony with black hegemony. In this respect, the film, being a thoroughly ideological product, eagerly conflates radical struggle with totalitarian ambitions. Although it tries to make the audience sympathize with N'Jadaka's motivations, its ideological message is clear enough - political radicalism is a psychological pathology that must be defeated.
Towards the end, T'Challa changed his mind and no longer believes in a nativist approach to an increasingly interconnected "multicultural" (read: global capitalist) world. So what does the film end on? A reformist and assimilationist politics combined with a bland and complacent liberal humanism. Let's build social outreach centers in black neighborhoods without challenging the political and economic mechanisms that make structural inequality and mass incarceration possible. Let's share our resources with the world, sing Kumbaya at the UN and forget about the systematic exploitation of Third World workers and the endless imperialist wars fought in service of global finance capital. Let's uphold bourgeois peace and defeat those "crazy" radicals. Let's ignore the institutions and the people who are actually responsible for large-scale human suffering and just hold everyone's hands and celebrate our "shared humanity". Is it surprising that all this ideological garbage is coming out of a mainstream Hollywood superhero film? Not at all.
For all the "smart" political commentaries and metaphors, Black Panther is ultimately steeped in the same hegemonic logic that it pretends to challenge. Black liberation is and has always been about struggling against deeply oppressive colonial and imperialist regimes. All this history of antagonism is conveniently erased in favor of a comfortable, feel-good bourgeois humanism.