Ugh, it wasn’t such a good idea. The film might be part of a cinematic universe curated by white men, but the literal point of Black Panther was also about a sense of black social ownership. An underlying theme in the whole shebang is about how black people can best defend a distinct sense of culture and thinking in a brutal world driven by neo-colonialism, while interacting with the world out of necessity. Almost every other line in the film is about the balance between interaction and assimilation.
So yes, fellow white people, we can wear this ugly sweater. But folks have to be a little more mindful of falling into the dumb trope of “black people made this cool thing therefore let’s ignore the whole point and find an Aryan to wear it because racism is over”. UGH COME ON. Be smarter than that.
That’s the problem right there - “we therefore get to own it and ignore the whole point of this creation and therefore look stupid” happened with rap, blaxploitation and R&B, and it’s exhausting. Find the balance better. Let white people buy it but find a black person to model it and skip the entire fucking problem, saving everyone a headache.
But don’t buy this sweater. The Wu-Tang infringing T-shirt does a better job than this anyway, truly.
