A black director, (Ryan Coogler) was given a budget of around 200 million dollars. He was also given a star-studded cast with actors and actresses such as Chadwick Boseman, Michael B Jordan, Lupita Nyong'o, and Forest Whitaker. Taking place in Wakanda, which is a fictional technologically advanced nation in Africa, T’Challa and Black Panther fight for the throne of Wakanda as the fate of Africa is at stake. Black Panther has recently surpassed Titanic at the box office for the third highest grossing film of all time with $667 million. It has been 2 months since the film has been released and the impact of it is still being felt.

Although there have been black superhero movies in the past such as Blade and Hancock, Black Panther is completely different.This movie isn't just any superhero film but a film that unapologetically portrays blackness in Trumps America. This is a revolutionary feat and a big step forward for cinema and the African-American community considering how America normally sees Africa in a negative light. To put it bluntly, the only time you see Africans on television is if its a commercial with starving people. The movie breaks cultural barriers and also impacts broader communities and groups of marginalized people.

This is one of the biggest representations of black people. White people get this feeling of gratitude all the time to a point where they are numb to it.To a white person, seeing people who look like them in mass media isn’t something they get excited about because of how normalized whiteness is.This is why this movie was and still is such a big deal. The roles were essentially reversed, wherein the film, it was an all-black cast with the exception of a token white person.

Race matters. It matters in terms of abuse of power, social standing in society, and more. Black Panther is not a perfect movie. But the critical and the commercial acclamation of a black movie that grapples with black identity is definitely progress.