Everything is political.
And not just in abstract sense any longer. Over the past two years, it has become clear that popular culture is not insulated from politics, and cannot be insulated from politics. There are any number of markers along this road; the rise of socially-conscious film criticism, the election of a reality television star as President of the United States, debates about diversity and representation on screen and in organisations. It is fair to debate all this, to wonder whether it is a necessary step on the road to maturity or another way in which it has become harder to escape into pop culture.
Over the past few weeks, Black Panther has become another front in the perpetual and never-ending culture wars, a battleground much like Gamergate in which views that would have been socially unacceptable even half a decade earlier are spilling out into the mainstream. Weeks before the film was released it found itself subjected to organised vote brigading and troll campaigns, racist fear-mongering and dogwhistling, panic and chaos. This was before the public had been given the opportunity to actually watch the film. Black Panther became a pop culture totem.
Much has been made of Black Panther as a progressive milestone. It is not the first black superhero movie, but it is the first Marvel Studios film with a primarily black cast and focusing exclusively on a black hero. It is perhaps the first true black superhero film of the superhero boom that the Blade trilogy helped to kickstart, but subsequently stood apart from. Black Panther is undeniably compelling from that perspective, a bold and necessary step forward. However, one look at social media demonstrates that there is still a long way left to go.
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