“I have seen gods fly. I have seen men build weapons that I couldn’t even imagine. I have seen aliens drop from the sky. But I have never seen anything like this.”
As a white person, I have my endless pick of superheros who look like me represented in the media (male of course, which is another issue for another time). Hollywood has a lot to answer for when it comes to the representation of people of colour. 19th century use of “blackface” not only popularised a racist cultural trend, but also marginalised black actors by privileging white actors for roles depicting black characters; 20th century film has furthermore cemented three generic themes for telling African-American stories – segregation, rags-to-riches, gang life- and white-dominated films have created/reinforced stereotypes of race, giving rise to film tropes such as “the token black character”, black people in sidelined positions of servitude, representation as thugs, etc. The last 10 years in particular have seen an increase in dialogue about the white-washed nature of Hollywood, and it’s not exactly surprising. As of 2016, the members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (America’s most celebrated filmmakers), are 89% male and 84% white. In 2016. Furthermore, out of the 3000 awards given by the Academy since 1929, only 36 have been won by black actors. Disney only introduced an African-American princess in 2009 (and by the way, she’s still the only one since). Needless to say, there’s a tangible problem.
Enter: Black Panther. He’s not a new hero by any means- Stan Lee and Jack Kirby created the character in solidarity with the Civil Rights movement in the 60s- but the significance of a ruler of a wealthy African nation turned superhero is one of eternal relevance. It has for the first time, opened particular multidimensional discussions about power: it represents a black man T’Challa as a king (power=leadership), as a superhero (power= influence, fame), an African empire that’s minted (power=wealth), and industrious (power= education/knowledge). It represents black women as warriors, scientists, saviours, inventors, and autonomous agents of history and culture. Even the villain Eric Killmonger (and his quest for power), is symbolic of post-colonial struggles for emancipation and identity. For English teachers, it’s a film I believe that we have to teach, especially in year 7-8, and especially in the UK and Australia. In the latter, visual media and film is a key part of the English curriculum, but in the UK, English and media are separated into two subjects, and students unfortunately can’t enrol in media until GCSE. Because I strongly disagree with this policy, and believe it to rob students of the necessary skills of visual literacy, I always weave film studies into KS3 non-fiction units; with my year 7 boys class this year I focused primarily on the Marvel universe.
Quite frankly, non-fiction can be boring, and my class are a high set of 30 energetic and talkative 11-year-olds. The non-fiction unit we studied focused on introducing persuasive writing and visual skills (e.g. feature articles, speech writing, advertisements etc). I chose the Marvel slant for the key purpose of engagement, and it certainly worked. I used clips from Thor for teaching the purpose of camera angles, music, and colour in film. We analysed negative film reviews for persuasive devices and wrote our own positive reviews for Batman; we created advertisements for new comic characters; we studied the persuasive speeches of DC villains** and wrote our own; and we wrote a fictional feature article about Superman from the perspective of Lois Lane as a final assessment. It was definitely fun (probably more so for me) and when Black Panther was released, I was only too eager to capitalise on it for my unit.
I work at a religious, all-white school. Most of the students come from a relatively small community, and most of them will never experience cultures outside of their own. They were all excited for the Black Panther movie, but when I asked them the open question “Why do you think people are so excited for this superhero?” very few could conjure the answer: “because he is not white.” This lesson was therefore super important not only for introducing them to ideas they’d likely not encounter, and for provoking dialogue about the power of film to engender and transmit socio-cultural ideas about power, race, gender, etc. We watched the trailer for the film, and then analysed the article “More than a movie, Black Panther is a movement” by Lisa Respers, which is a persuasive insight into racism in Hollywood and the significance of representation of African-American characters and stories. The kids were really engaged, and I was impressed not only with their articulation of ideas but also the lovely ‘lightbulb’ moment where several expressed outrage on realising that many children have never seen a superhero that looks like them. That this is only the tip of an iceberg of disempowerment is a good starting place for deconstructing a very difficult issue with children in KS3.
It’s important that we have these discussions with students early, and particularly in the UK where visual literacy isn’t prioritised on the English curriculum, teachers have a responsibility to ensure their students are able to critically engage with the ubiquitous media platforms that now dominate their lives. Understanding the factors that influence and bias mainstream media (therefore stretching the text-context relationship) could even be the springboard upon which we introduce students to film. In doing so, we plant seeds for conscious consuming. After all, in the wake of Weinstein and Barr, and with the amount of incredible content now saturating our cinemas, TVs and computer screens (i.e. my life is basically Netflix now), we more than ever need to consider: how does this material reflect the motivations and prejudices of its creators and investors? What proclivities does it challenge or reinforce? The film industry is a concentration of power, and how it wields that power to shape narratives that reflect us has to be something we teach.
** In adapting this unit for next year, I want to look at Killmonger’s final speech, and particularly analyse his choice to die a free man rather than be incarcerated. This opens up discussions about America’s incarceration crisis, and can be coupled with modern non-fiction resources (E.g. “Locking Up Our Own: Crime & Punishment in Black America” by James Forman, 2017) and others (Luther King’s speeches, Mandela’s biography).
Tess Moon 