Star Wars X Roots = Black Panther

Hello, Steve Barnes here with Life Writing Live. Just getting ready. Only two more days until Black Panther is here. So I figured that since it's Black History Month, I mean, sorry, Afrofuturism Month, I would just go ahead and kind of delve more deeply into these things. I mean, everything I'm talking about is the application of mythology to life and life to mythology. So Afrofuturism is a specific application. That's all it is. So whatever you're interested in, all you have to do is change some of the terms and change some of the sets, and it'll apply to whatever you're interested in. Or you could simply use it to help you understand what's going on in this context. So today I want to talk about, you know, there's this fantastic explosion of Black Panther fever and eagerness about it and. Hi, everybody. Hello, Tinel. Thanks, Lee and Theo and James and Scott and my dad. My father in law, John Dew, is on the line. So that's great, too. So, hi, everybody. Love you all. And I wanted to talk about explaining your enthusiasms to people who don't enjoy them, who ask, well, why is this special? You know, are people giving you the fish eye when you say Wakanda Forever? Are they asking you what's wrong with Meteor man or Falcon or Blank man or Luke Cage or even the beloved Blade? Are you getting sick of the fake negative reviews and thinly veiled insult by people who, let's say, are not allies in this matter? Well, you're not alone. I find that the people who don't understand Panther Fever overlaps nicely with those who don't understand science fiction in general. And that's one set. Or comic book movies in particular, that's another set. And to be honest, those who don't understand or approve of Black Lives Matter, you know, they tend not to have very many black friends either. Yeah, I peaked at their Facebook friends list. I do that. And it matches what I see in the real world among the same people, similar people with similar complaints. So don't act like there's some huge difference. There just isn't. In fact, your Facebook list tends to be more diverse than your real friends list. Back in 1977, when Star wars came out, Remember the first movie before they added a new hope to it. God, what a frenzy. It was just amazing. People were spending overnight in tents to be, you know, for days, to be the first online. Remember that? I mean, it was. The cultural takeover was huge. On the COVID of magazines. It was, you know, on the radio and television, everybody was talking about it, and it was just fantastic. And there were some people who didn't understand. Or you could look at the Star Trek phenomenon, you know, with people creating languages, legally changing their names, wearing Spock ears to words, and getting married in Star Trek wedding ceremonies. Remember all of that. You know, I love both of these things, but I think. I guess people consider to me, you know, relatively, I seemed to be normal. They would ask me, what is it with the weirdos? You know, why are the weirdos acting this way? And, you know, I never slept on a line, you know, at the movie to get in. You know, I never wore Vulcan ears. But I understood. I understood why people were so enthusiastic. I understood how hungry we are for myths that connect head and heart and body, myths that say that we matter, that the human heart matters in the midst of chaos and future shock. Myths that say that it's all right for us to be different, that there is still a place for us in the galaxy, in the world. I mean, God knows I needed that myself. Maybe you did, too. Now, that's half the equation. If you can understand that. That's half the equation. The other half. Remember Roots? Remember the Roots miniseries? I do. I distinctly remember the entire country shut down for, you know, a week at dinner time. And everybody was watching this together. And it wasn't just entertainment, of course. It wasn't just history. It was a mythology that helped to contextualize history. I distinctly remember a lady at Pepperdine University who'd always mocked black concerns. Oh, there's nothing. Why are you talking about that, Steve? And at that point, I wasn't even talking about it much, but after seeing Roots, she was in tears. She literally. She said she had had no idea at all. How could she? Was it her fault? There literally are forces pushing against telling the truth about what happened. Literally. It is not your fault for not knowing. People have collaborated deliberately to remove facts from textbooks and to keep this stuff off the airways. And it is not an accident that the dominating cinematic imagery of slavery was gone with the wind up until Django Unchained. So, I mean, in terms of serious film, don't even go there. It was not your fault. There really were forces pushing against you and God. I don't know nothing about birthing no babies. Ms. Scarlet, if you can hear that without throwing up in your mouth a little bit, you're one of the fortunate ones. To this day, there are uninformed people claiming that slavery was no worse than immigration or that liberal social policies are more damaging than 400 years of captivity and isolation, you know, Jim Crow and segregation. There really are. I see them on Facebook all the time from people who I used to consider to be open minded and fairly intelligent. There are voters, employers, lawmakers, justice officials who believe these things. And how do you think those people interpret the statistics on things like income, Income disparity and infant mortality and arrest rates? You think they believe in equality no matter what they will say in public? Politely? How could they? We've been surrounded by them for centuries, and the stranglehold on media and society these attitudes have had is just beginning to break down, leading them to feel desperate and afraid. Fear leads to anger. Anger leads to violence. Be careful. Myths have power. Roots had that power because it was a story of one man who fought through the walls, rebuilt historical bridges, connected family myth on the American continent to family myth in an African village, in the process regaining a slender thread of what had been ripped away from slaves. Names, language, culture, history, mythology, religion, agency, the memory of a time when his people defined themselves in terms of. His people were in terms of the natural forces of the earth, not in reference to oppressors and colonizers, kidnappers and even kind but patronizing allies. Alex Haley was the first black American to accomplish this in right of it widely. And for that he was both greatly enriched and attacked unceasingly. Gee, I wonder whose interest it was to try to minimalize what it was that he had done. Hmm. I will leave that as an exercise. I remember sitting in my mom's living room watching this groundbreaking program over the course of a week, and for the very first time in my life. You know, because in my 12 years of public school education, not a single hour was spent on the subject of slavery. Not one civil war, sure, and I think it was mentioned in passing, but the circumstances, the conditions, the testimonies of slaves themselves, nothing. We spent four or five weeks growing silkworms at one point in elementary school, but we did not talk about slavery. For the very first time, I grasped a history that was not created and approved by the very people who needed to kidnap my ancestors and brainwash them into working for a fraction of their value, as well as giving up all agency over their lives and bodies. And whose descendants would blindly claim that offering someone free sandwiches for a month is more damaging than torturing and raping them for a year. I mean, the bald faced temerity of that is staggering. And they got away with it for decades, but they cannot get away with it any longer if you know who you are. In all honesty, Roots was too Late for me. I'd already done sort of an end run round race with countless hours of meditation and study connecting me directly to the heart of the divine. I had not seen any strength or power in being black. Not in my house, not in my neighborhood. Despite the surface happy talk I just didn't see. Took decades, decades for me to revisit those questions. And the price for doing so was just as severe as I'd feared. I'm strong enough to handle it, but the cost of developing that strength was again, severe. And I do not want the next generation to pay that price. They're going to need to pay that price to do other things, to accomplish other things. And truth is, I see enough positive changes in business, politics, economics and entertainment to convince me that, no, my kids aren't going to have to pay the same price that I paid. Just as I didn't pay as high a price as my father paid. Or his father. Or his father. So if you want to understand the frenzied reaction to Black Panther, all you have to do is look at the Star wars phenomenon, which was about the power of mythology and family identity, and the Roots phenomenon, which is about the power of myth and social identity. Add or multiply them times each other and bang, you have that explosion of joy. Star wars times roots equals Black Panther. Look at the reactions from people, black and white. As with the reaction to Wonder Woman, the no Man's Land sequence, the reaction is I didn't even know I knew needed to see this. That is filling a hunger so deep that we're numb to it. To be connected with our ancestors, our land, our gods, our names, our sense of centrality in the universe, something every other group of people on the planet has. Africans have it. Even if they have material poverty. They have a sense of who they are. Colonized people have it. Even though once again they can be oppressed. But they still have their names or identity, their gods, their legends. Brainwashed and kidnapped people do not. And white folks, most just want to live decent lives, raise their families, deal with their own stresses, with integrity. They want our children to be able to play together without dragging the past up again and again. But until that past is dealt with honestly, until the liars stop claiming that they would have gotten over it faster, or the immigrants who fought to get here had the same experience as the Africans who fought to escape. Until we are at least a generation beyond those lies, it is irrational for anyone to expect us not to join ranks and say, back the hell off, go back to sleep. Unless you're a snake, of course, in which case, slither on over. To paraphrase Nick Fury and the Avengers, snake, meet Boot. But you will not enter the nursery, even though baby Jason could strangle you in his sleep. Black baby Hercules. No. Little t'. Challa. What can you do? Mostly live a good and decent life with your eyes open, or enjoy and support art that speaks to a wider world. If you want to go deeper, share what you learn with your children or the children that you influence. And if you want to go deeper still and are a creative artist, create your own inclusive worlds. We need you. Black, white, brown, yellow, Christian, Jew, gay, straight, male, female, liberal and conservative. We need your perspective. And so long as you believe in human equality, you are welcome in this new world. This is an opportunity. A new opportunity to close the door on the past without forgetting its horrors. To embrace a future grounded in a pretty new and revolutionary notion that people can be different without being less. We can create that world for our children, and we must, or we have failed them. Let them deal with the new challenges of the 21st century. For God's sake. Don't ask them to keep carrying the burdens and fighting the wars of the 19th century, the 18th century, the 17th century. God, let's close the door, shall we? All we have to do is tell the truth. Science fiction is just the mythology of the 20th century. Afrofuturism is nothing but this concept applied specifically to the children of the Diaspora, to their hopes and dreams and identities. It's not that complicated. And if you didn't miss the fact that we weren't in Star wars, you have no right to complain that we are creating our own worlds now and inviting all to share in the fun. So if you want to go beyond Black Panther or understand its roots, we have everything you need in the Afrofuturism Dreams to Banish Nightmares class. Everything you need to understand, research, support, create, including the emotional tools and a full writing course. It's worth at least 10 times what we're charging for it. Be part of the answer. To order it, go to www.afrofuturismwebinar.com and I'll see you at the movies. I've already got my ticket. Wakanda forever. Take care, guys. See you later.