Is Black Panther Alt-Right?

hello everyone today I'd like to talk about Black Panther the latest film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe of movies featuring heroes with superhuman abilities but first of all we need to talk about a Christmas carol so the main character in a Christmas carol is of course a Bernese a Scrooge and I'll show here a picture of Michael Caine in the Muppet Christmas Carol which is by far the best adaptation and I'd like you to be a bit of a guinea pig in a little experiment of mine right now how would you describe the character of Ebenezer Scrooge now this might seem silly but it does have a point so what is Scrooge like well he's selfish he's miserly he's cold-hearted unpleasant you know you get the picture hard and sharp as a flint from which no steel had ever struck out generous fire secret and self-contained and solitary as an oyster so my question is this why is this the image of Scrooge that persists because of course this is only Scrooge's character at the start of the narrative but then you know things happen to him and he changes a Christmas carol is the story of how Scrooge transforms from a cold cruel person into a generous kind person yet we understand that if someone calls another person Scrooge they're saying they're unkind and mean rather than as good a man as the good old city knew as Dickens describes a Scrooge by the end of the story so why is this well I don't know you know it's just something I noticed and maybe it's just that first impressions count along you know maybe the most memorable characters and places and things in a story just more naturally occur at the start before the narrative has a chance to smooth out the edges on its way to bringing the story to a resolution as Scrooge certainly stands out more at the start of the book than at the end so anyway let's seemingly abandon this point here and move on to talk about black panther and fair warning there will be spoilers in this video not just for black panther but for for Ragnarok as well and well a Christmas carol - I guess it's a bit late for that now though so why will it be spoilers for for Ragnarok in this video well that's because both it and a black panther follow a very similar story structure which I'll just outline rather quickly here so the main character of the story is a prince who is the heir to a kingdom his father is the king and in the mind of the Prince he's a great leader who the Prince does not yet feel ready to replace however following the death of the king the prince finds out a terrible secret about something his father did in the past something that creates the antagonizing force in the movie in for Odin imprisoned his firstborn child heller after she helped him conquer the nine realms and in black panther king takaka killed his own brother and abandons his nephew who returns later like hella seeking revenge the prince is initially defeated and depowered for losses his hammer T'Challa loses his cat powers and this sets them up to later return regain their powers defeat the antagonist and prevent them from doing something terrible and in the process the Prince decides he will have to radically transform his Society for intentionally destroys Asgard in order to defeat our and touch our at the conclusion of the movie reveals the existence of Wakanda to the rest of the world so we're here to talk about Black Panther so why am i mentioning its similarity to four Ragnarok you know am I really trying to show off that I noticed two Marvel superhero movies were similar well a little bit but it does tie into a point I want to make later so I've teed up two different points at the start of the video here the Scrooge fing and the four Ragnarok thing and let's leave them both dangling there awkwardly and move on to answer today's apparently pressing question is work and ax and alt right F no state what Condor is the alt rights paradise and every single inhabitant of Wakanda with the exception of T'Challa sister is alt right vikander is actually almost identical to the very stereotype of what you say trump is try to create in America where candor is homogeneous where candor is isolationist where candor is willing to exploit its natural resources candor is protected by walls where candid isn't allow immigration where candor is based around national self-interest that's literally everything you say Trump is bad for doing but when fictional black people are doing it suddenly it's amazing Wakanda is a xenophobic high-tech space-age ethno state that does not wish to have any interaction to the outside world and they're surrounded by a big beautiful wall which is guarded by a warrior class this is word-for-word what Richard Spencer wants for the white race and the king says you know we should maybe we should take refugees in from Africa I mean it's amazing what a question to ask should we take we have this unified ethno state that's very powerful based upon technology and respect for our ancestors should we take in refugees from Africa that are black like us and the guys like and you bring refugees in you bring all their problems too so now jeez I feel a bit out of the loop you know like there's some YouTube newsletter I'm not receiving it seems my colleagues across the aisle are all in agreement black panther's Wakanda is an alt right trumpet isolationist anti-immigrant F no state so what we're gonna do today is see which words in that sentence are true and let's start with F no state that being a state run by and for a particular ethnicity a particular ethnicity with a single culture language ancestry and so on so is Wakanda one of these F no states well in the opening narration of the movie intended to be watched and understood by children it is explained to the audience that Wakanda is a confederation of different tribes of people these tribes can assent to or challenge the rule of the king and indeed one of the early scenes in the movie features the leader of the jabari tribe baku challenging the challahs rule the jabari tribe lived with in Wakanda but disagree with how the other tribes live and govern they have a different culture to the rest of the work and is work under an F no state no it's made up of different ethnicities all the YouTube racists have done in declaring Wakanda and F no States is betray what they really mean when they say F no States which is race state the different tribes in Wakanda are all black so that means that even though the opening narration explains that Wakanda is a confederation of different tribes of people with different cultures and Heritage's whatever that doesn't matter they're black so they must all be the same apparently so f no state is out however Wakanda is a secretive isolationist state that hides its existence from the rest of the world behind a big wall that's true at the start of the story anyway and then like in a Christmas carol events occur and things change characters have arcs the Wakanda at the end of the narrative is different to the candor at the start so let's take a look at these videos in more detail and see what if anything they have to say about that first up is Paul Joseph Watson's the truth about the Black Panther movie the thumbnail of which features Black Panther in a trump hat there for some reason the Black Panther movie is a piece of [ __ ] I haven't actually seen it though well okay fair enough yet we'll leave that there then that one was easy Paul didn't even watch the movie you know why he feels qualified to give us opinion about the movie having not seen it is a bit of a mystery now since he hasn't seen it this means Paul has to rely on someone else to fill him in so black lives matter are portrayed as the villains the hero is a nationalist the hero is basically blacktron that's right Paul thinks that T'Challa is an isolationist nationalist not because he's seen the movie but because Ian miles Chung told him so always a trustworthy source of information there so what does Paul have to say about T'Challa later revealing were kanda to the rest of the world and using its resources to help others nothing of course because he hasn't seen the movie honestly let's move on and take a peek at stefan molyneux video the truth about black panther first off stefan appears to have actually watched the movie so well done he gets a big gold star for that and let's see what he thinks of it the power of Wakanda is the power of obviously this this magical vibranium but also as they repeat and repeat and repeat throughout the movie respect your ancestors love your ancestors know your history live for your people live for your country live for your state live for your tribe the tribe is everything what kinda forever powerful stuff so the strength of a people is in its respect for its ancestors so respecting ancestors is the key to wakanda's strength now I don't know what film he watched or in my cinema it showed the black panther that includes a scene in which two chala the protagonist actually meets his ancestors the previous Black Panthers and shouts at them you were wrong all of you were wrong to turn your back on the rest of the world you know the strict isolationism enforced by wakanda's previous rulers is presented as a bad thing that the hero has to overcome it creates kill manga the antagonist T'Challa even outright states kill manga is a monster of our own making he might as well look right into the camera when he sees it as well it's like a making sure the kids in the audience follow along moment the chalice turning point in the movie is when he rejects how his ancestors ruled he rejects isolationism and later reveals the existence of Wakanda what does the fan have to say about this well if you guessed absolutely nothing congratulations you're correct Stephan actually saves remarkably little about the actual movie in his 56 minute video choosing instead to deliver his standard here's why colonialism was okay a speech for about 95% of the run time now sargon of akkad surprises by actually mentioning the end of the movie in his video the politics of black panther not that he actually factors it into his understanding of the rest of the narrative however he makes a few mistakes in that regard so let's take a peek his mother is the highly respected queen and his 16 year old sister is wakanda's resident genius who happens to be able to make anything she likes out of vibranium she's also insufferable constantly sniping at him and ruining any moments of meaning that T'Challa has while at the same time attempting to undermine his authority as king I found her unrealistic unrelatable and unbearable so I wasn't surprised to learn that her character was also a far left open borders advocate which T'Challa shuts down without any further discussion he points out correctly that if they let people in what candor will change which was a surprisingly woked defense of anti-immigration policies so fast off this conversation between T'Challa and his sister Shuri the supposed far left open borders advocates doesn't happen the conversation in which two Chawla says he doesn't want to let him refugees actually takes place between him and Nakia who is his love interest in the movie and this isn't the only time Sargon mixes of these two characters he elsewhere states the women of Wakanda are portrayed as strong intelligent and capable but are locked out of ruling the patriarchal Kingdom because of their gender which is alluded to in a conversation between T'Challa and his sister where he gently chastises her for suggesting that one day she might rule because she's a girl now it's that true I can't remember that scene happening honestly I remember a scene in which two Chawla talks about Nakia being a queen because he's flirting with her you know if he marries her she'll be the queen but nothing about Shuri being the queen I'm willing to admit being wrong here you know maybe my memory is on the fritz as well but regardless Carl uses the conversation between T'Challa and Nakia as his proof that T'Challa is all right he also shares a picture of black panther trump hat so I think I can help Sargon out a little here with my interpretation of the narrative of the film there are a few key early scenes in the movie that relate to what Canada's governance first off is to challenge the spirit of his father and saying he doesn't feel ready to lead and isn't sure what to do and then his father Spirit says surround yourself with people you trust and the next scene is to chollet orking to his love interest Nakia he asks her what work and ax should do and she says we should share our wealth and knowledge with the world and take in refugees you know all that good stuff the next scene is - chattering - his friend work Abby who advises him not to let refugees in but says hey if you want to go [ __ ] some guys up and down with that head to which the cherub of Simon Says war is not our way these scenes set up the core formatic conflict of the movie you know should work on the remain hidden or reveal itself to the world and if it reveals itself should that be done peacefully and diplomatically or in a violent conquest T'Challa takes the opposite side in his conversations with both work Abby and Nakia because he isn't sure what he should do his first real test comes when Everett Ross gets shot there's a conversation between Ocoee the partner of work Abby and Nakia where they again debates the core conflict should we reveal Wakanda in order to help this outsider or should we let it remain hidden and such a uses to bring him to Wakanda in order to save his life and then later in the story we of course have the previously mentioned T'Challa shouting at his ancestors that they were wrong and finally using wakanda's resources to help the world at the conclusion of the movie so is to chawla all right well only if being alright means abandoning those principles immediately in order to do the right thing at every available opportunity T'Challa is hesitantly anti-immigration at the beginning of the film but then things happen to him and he changes and by the end he is not it's the old Scrooge issue again Sargon and Stephane and Paul are real only the initial representation of touch our and Wakanda and not the narrative as a whole now the rest of Sargon's response is filled with similar blustery retellings of all the terrible things about Wakanda you know as if he's the only one who noticed them and I'm not really sure who he's responding to I can take a guess though though it's a little convoluted to relay so stick with me here Sargon has seen people he calls sjw's excited about the Black Panther movie as indeed a lot of people are a big-budget movie with a predominantly black cast set in Africa you know it brings some diversities of the Marvel Cinematic Universe a lot of minorities and those on the left are glad to see the movie doing so well but Sargon and other right-wingers see this enthusiasm about what the movie represents and misinterpret it to be uncritical and unquestioning enthusiasm for every aspect of every part of the movie so in Sargon said all these sjw's are excited to see a representation of a flawless black paradise and then when he notices that Wakanda is not so that it's actually a country with problems that need to be overcome he treats that as a contradiction you know this movie isn't living up to my expectation of SJW expectations aha I have caught it out and Carl you're off the mark man you know people are just excited to see a black superhero movie it doesn't mean they now support hereditary monarchies or something just because there was one in the movie I mean I like for Ragnarok that's got a hereditary monarchy in the movie it doesn't mean I support it though does it that was my for Ragnarok callback there but you've forgotten about that there's another one coming up in a few minutes as well so be on the lookout so to demonstrate that was loony sjw types can actually look at the movie critically I guess I should give my opinions here so I fought Black Panther was okay it's probably my second favorite Marvel movie after four Ragnarok though that is not a filled with particularly stiff competition mostly exceedingly flaccid competition actually all the positive things about Black Panther were held back in part by the constraints of the medium it is ultimately a comic book movie and comes with all the problems that that entails you know regardless of politics you know the final confrontation is gonna be between to punch men punching each other until the good guy punches the best and wins now Black Panther attempts to give the villain kill monger some complexity as much complexity as one can give a character called kill monger anyway but it ultimately needs the audience to side with Black Panther so it tempers that complexity with having kill manga just do horrible things from time to time and this good versus evil simplification bleeds into the wider conflict of the movie as well kill mungus was the bad way to reveal Wakanda to the world and to chalice is the good way when really it's more complex than that you know what happens if T'Challa tries to give aid to a country and they refuse or if the government keeps all the aid for themselves while letting their people starve you know will he then intervene or just abandon those people it's a pretty tough question and the movie kind of rushes past this problem at the end there but they have to save something for Black Panther to I guess so to Chandlers peaceful diplomatic aid outreach fing felt a little thin to me now obviously starting a race war as kill manga wants it is hardly a perfect option either but these two philosophies are not the only two that are available but again it's a Marvel movie The Closer that Black Panther gets to real-world problems and situations the dollar it's edge gets you know it's held back by its proximity to reality I guess there's almost no white racism in the movie for instance and for a movie that references colonialism a bunch having the conflict be between a black man and his cousin within a royal family about it felt like an imposed half measure you know they want this movie to sell to white audiences too clearly the more direct colonialist story would be the world finding out about wakanda's vibranium deposits invading it to plunder them and having Wakanda have to fight back but that story would be a little embarrassing I imagine this is partly why I prefer for ragnarok to black panther because the for movie being set in a fictional space Empire has a lot more freedom to go where the story needs to you can have for recognized that colonialist as god needs to be destroyed and doing it and setting out to create a better society but you can't have Wakanda being invaded by a real country that actually exists on earth and then have what can to destroy it though that is fun to imagine the one other criticism I have of Black Panther is one I also have four four Ragnarok that it doesn't drop the hereditary monarchy at the end of the movie looking at this list again the one and only point that remains true by the end of the movie is anti democracy now the movie does communicate that absolute monarchy is a bad thing it means someone like kill manga can usurp the throne and curry a turning on King kill monger is presented heroically for instance but I'd have preferred a more direct condemnation for the less discerning viewers in the audience shall we say you know a little tact on conversation at the end by the way that kill manga thing sucked we should probably have elections instead you know that wouldn't have been hard to do if I were making the sequel that would probably be the first plot point all that said I still enjoyed Black Panther and I'm excited about it particularly in a sign of things to come tight fashion the more that Hollywood gets used to the idea that it does not only need to tell white stories the more stories we'll all have to enjoy and isn't that neat and I guess at the conclusion here I should return and answer the opening question is Black Panther all right no thanks a lot for watching everyone and thank you for listening to me waffle about a Marvel movie for however many minutes this video ended up being I decided to put this video up before my video on charlottesville because I wanted to take a little more time with it but that video is nearly done I'm happy to announce so expect that very shortly thanks as always to my supporters over on patreon all of whom are brilliant ahead over there and check it out if you like and also follow me on Twitter or send me a question on curious cat I will put the links below thanks a lot folks I'll see you next time

Channel: Shaun

Views: 498,800

Rating: 4.870738 out of 5

Keywords: shaun, shaun jen, black panther, black panther alt right, wakanda alt right

Id: 7NOPLuZ9eGs

Length: 22min 37sec (1357 seconds)

Published: Wed Feb 28 2018

Reddit Comments

[u/Truancy_Bot]

Pretty sad someone had to have a serious sit down and make this video

[u/ParamoreFanClub]

I couldn’t watch the video. Honestly the right side of youtube is too much. It genuinely started to upset me how stupid they are. These people influence others. Pjw has 675k views on that video. Like holy shit that’s a lot of people with cancer now

[u/Perpetual_Rage]

He mentions that Shuri couldn't rule because she is female, but I don't remember that ever being sad. There was a joke in the movie where it looked like she was challenging T'Challa for the throne so it seems like women could be rulers in Wakanda.

[u/gjge_]

"you the real racists"

libs btfo yet again

[u/SailOfIgnorance]

Good job by Shaun. I especially liked his points about Wakanda not being an ethnostate, and how that claim exposed simplistic thinking by ethnostaters.

There's also been some claims from (twitter) leftists that Killmonger is actually a good guy because of his goal of a violent black uprising. I thought this article did a good job dismantling that view, as well as a coherent thematic analysis overall .

[u/Nhabls]

So these people would look at a story with a redemption arc ( ) and think the original state of the character is the intended message?

Of course they would...

[u/ComfyBrah]

B-BL-BLACK PANTHER IS ALT-RIGHT!

[u/[deleted]]

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