What Watching Black Panther Meant To Me: A Young Black Woman

First of all, photo credit: This cover image is a Black Panther promotional poster. Image belongs to Marvel/Disney.

It’s been a while since I’ve been inspired as a black woman in the United States. During Obama’s presidency there was a sense of hope, someone to look up to, an admirable and powerful figure that looked like me. With all the hate and division we’ve experienced lately, I haven’t felt very inspired. 

I was initially looking forward to watching Black Panther because I recently got into reading comics (thanks to my friend, and co-worker, Robbie). Slowly my excitement shifted when I began to realize how big this movie was for black America and black people around the world. This was a huge film, a Marvel film, with an almost all black cast and a huge budget. This does not happen often, and I instantly wanted to support this project as much as I possibly could.

When I watched this movie on Saturday night with my boyfriend Jordyn and our friends Phil and Corinne, I felt SO INSPIRED! I was so proud of how well the film was put together, how powerful the characters were, and how beautifully Africa was presented, even though Wakanda is a fictional place. These are things that people may take for granted when they are well represented in main stream media, but for someone like myself, this movie was extremely empowering. 

I want to see more minorities taking on big roles and creating more of these big films because it gives hope to a lot of young people, like myself, who are aware of the fact that we are the minority. It’s inspirational to see people that look like you, represent your culture in a positive and empowering way. On top of the fact that this was a black film, there were powerful roles being played by WOMEN!

THANK YOU FOR INSPIRING ME!

With love, 

- MGL