These Are Not Your Negroes

thecheshirecass:

thecheshirecass:

Dear White People,

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.