After a one month hiatus (the reason for which is explained in the article) #BlackEye is back! Yay, right? Thanks for all the love and messages of concern. My soul is on the mend. Thanks in part to the subject of this month’s column. Black Eye is focused on Black Panther! It’s opening here in Japan was something special and yours truly was of course in attendance!
(Big shout out to Monique Dehaney for planning and organizing this Black Panther Viewing Party together! You’re Awesome!)
The film and the event got me to reflecting on why this film, a decidedly black film, has increased meaning to black people living abroad, particularly in countries like Japan where our numbers are relatively few and our image is invariably controlled by others, and decided to share some of those thoughts with you guys. Here’s an excerpt:
The film itself exceeded expectations, well worth the praise it has been showered with, but a film review is not on my agenda. I viewed this film as I view all media that features black actors or has black intellect behind it, through two sets of eyes.
The first set sees the actor or story for what it truly is: human beings telling human stories. The other set, unfortunately, makes every effort to approximate how this would be viewed by non-black eyes, by people who are prone to see my humanity as outside of their own.
This can’t be helped, I’m afraid. As much as I would love to believe that everyone is capable of simply seeing humans on the screen, there’s way too much evidence that that is not the case — that many do not see people, they see black people, and worse, they assess us in the real world based on these images. Particularly in a country like Japan where real blackness is in such short supply.
When the opening of “Black Panther” in Japan was first announced, man was I hyped! On and off the internet, even here in Japan, BP was an inescapable topic of rich discussion, particularly among black folk, for here was a high-budget blockbuster, written, directed, produced and conceived by black minds, with a black lead actor and a cast consisting of black and beautiful bodies vested with vitality and agency. In the century-plus that Hollywood has been carpet-bombing the world with their product, about how many of these thousands of films can this statement be made?
So, hell yeah, we were ecstatic! But, in the weeks leading up to its release, I can’t speak for all black people, of course, but I started getting a little antsy. “It’s just an effin’ movie!” I had to remind myself repeatedly. “And a Disney flick, at that! So settle down.”
Read the rest of this Japan Times article here: Black Panther Party in Japan
Thanks guys, as always, for your support of Black Eye!
Love, Baye