Black and Emboldened

I also thought it could be relationship to how black men in America encouraged to not show emotions, not cry or hug, as they make it seem to show a since of weakness.

When N’jobu asked Erik,” No tears for me?” You could see how Erik was holding back tears and just left it as,” the world is hard, men don’t have the chance to cry” in so many words.

T'Chaka was proud of his son because T'Challa was a good man despite T'Chaka’s mistakes. N'jobu failed his son utterly and completely. He was estranged from Wakanda and so, in turn, was his son.

It was a beautiful scene, full of regret and the ways in which the mistakes of the past can be visited on present generations. The scene was supposed to be our clue that Killmonger was not going to be king. He was not a product of Wakanda. He was a product of that sad, angry room with both the guns and the history hidden behind a painting on the wall.

He was a product of a hidden history and a violent society. So that is where he went, and that is where he met his father forever trapped by the mistakes of men who could not see beyond their own needs. T'Chaka, his need to protect his vision of himself and Wakanda and N'jobu, his need to heal the world by defying his King and country.

The thread running through Black Panther is estrangement. It is the stylised story of a people whose history has been hidden for far too long. It is the story of a people estranged from themselves and their history. It is the story of the Diaspora. It is also a story of choice. We, the Diaspora, choose every day and in every minute our response to that estrangement. Are we defined by the wrongs visited upon us as a people? Do we hold the anger in? Do we explode? Do we make people pay for the hurt, the pain, the indignities? Will we be Killmongers?

Will we meet our ancestors in the sad, dark places of our pain?

That was one of the points of that scene. Erik Killmonger met his father in the sad, dark place of his pain.

Ryan Coogler is trying to show us in a few scenes what estrangement means. What being cutoff from your history means. You are not supposed to find it in a cutout behind a painting sitting next to the guns. And that wasn’t his fault. Other people made bad choices. A society made bad choices and he paid for their bad choices with his soul.

But then there comes a point when you choose who you will be, despite the bad choices that formed you. Killmonger made the correct choice in the end, or at least the only choice he could have made.

(warning: contains spoilers from the movie)

aries: m’baku hushing agent ross with barks when he tries to speak

taurus: shuri clowning t’challa’s sandals with the infamous “WHAT ARE THOOSE” line

gemini: w’kabis flip flopping ass siding with erik as soon as he came with klaue’s dead body

cancer: shuri explaining her invention of “sneakers” to t’challa

leo: erik’s extra ass giving a whole dramatic speech while taking off his shirt moments before he battles t’challa

virgo: m’baku’s “are you done” line in the moment where t’challa is reuniting with his family and making plans to reclaim his throne

libra: erik pretending to be shocked when the museum lady faints from drinking her poisoned coffee

scorpio: m’baku threatening to feed agent ross to his children and joking about them being vegetarians moments after

sagittarius: okoye literally snatching off her own wig and using it as a weapon

capricorn: okoye telling w’kabi she would kill him without hesitation despite them being lovers if they were to fight

aquarius: shuri allowing t’challa to get blasted by his own suit without warning him and filming the whole thing

(starting from the top left,)