Black Heroes: Media and Music
In 2008, I was a kid who was so excited to go watch Iron Man in the movie theatres. Little did I know, it was the beginning of a media boom that would see superheroes go from stopping world domination to facing the problems of the everyday person. Ten years in, we have seen black people being properly represented in two notable new releases, the critically and commercially acclaimed "Black Panther" and the Akil-family produced "Black Lightning", that fought super powered foes and faced the same issues as many people of color faced everyday and that rap has highlighted for years.
I won't spoil any of my two examples in case you haven't watched them yet, but I'll take the time to talk about the themes with a brief synopsis.
The first one to premiere was the CW's "Black Lightning", telling the story of father and school principal Jefferson Pierce (Cress Williams) juggling the challenges of fatherhood and his work life in a broken community when he decides to return to the mantle of Black Lightning after almost a decade. During the thirteen episode first season, the mirroring of what is going in the african-american community is apparent: rampant drug use, lack of trust towards police forces and even gang violence. But we've heard these themes before through the lens of our modern-poets in the rap game. The beginnings of the genre saw all-time greats such as Grandmaster Melle Mel saying not to do drugs in "White Lines (Don't Do It)". A more modern artist by the name of Vic Mensa would give us an anthem detailing relations between communities and police in "16 Shots" while T.I spoke about doing the right choices and not joining violence or condoning gang behavior in "Dead and Gone". We've heard this before.
The cultural phenomenon that took over the first few months of 2018, with black people going to movie theatres in droves to support this big endeavor, was "Black Panther". T'Challa (Chadwick Boseman) is now the King of Wakanda, a very secretive country in Africa, and is forced to have to face the demons of his deceased father's past all while keeping control of power. The issues facing black communities around the world are seen here, from the differences in black people on a social-economic scale as well as it is seen on DJ Khaled and Nas on "Nas Album Done". The empowerment of the black woman was exemplified in Hip-Hop due to Tupac Shakur's "Dear Mama". Finally, the major theme that could be seen is black excellence that was amazingly done by Trinidad James in "This is Black Excellence". So what is so different when you look at both movies and the music?
I'm not criticizing all the work that the actors, writers and entire crews put into "Black Lightning" and Black Panther, nor am I disrespecting "Marvel's Luke Cage" by not talking about it, but I wanted to highlight a point. Why do we care so much about what these fictional heroes do more than what actual people have been saying for years? Is it because socially conscious hip-hop is boring? No. Could it be attributed to the fact that trap music is the dominant subgenre, possibly giving a bad look to the entire Culture due to its promotion of drug use? Meh. Has the political and social climate made us more sensitive to these types of issues? Not exactly. The surprising answer, at least to me, is the perception that we have of superheroes. I used to read comic books to escape the problems that I would face, as I believe a lot of other people do. The pages of the comic books would hold stories of great feats that were so above what I was facing, done by superheroes. But that's just it: SUPERheroes.
Whether it be Jefferson Pierce, King T'Challa of Wakanda or Superman, they are, by definition, made to be looked up to. They are put on a higher moral, societal and physical standard than we put ourselves. We are conscious of our problems and their real life implications, but to see a hero face those same problems is inherently shocking. It's like a kid seeing their father cry for the first time : it's powerful in its effect because it alters the aura of invincibility that we once had placed on those people. Hip-Hop artists no longer have that, as it has become normal for rappers like Jay-Z about the struggle that comes with being Black in America or Ice Cube telling us to "F*** Tha Police" after all the police brutality suffered, but to see these same issues Black Panther and Black Lightning, it humanizes them. I'm no longer a kid when I see that; I become an adult conscious of his fellow person, able to understand that if our heroes have to face these problems in the media, than we must change the entire societal narrative to change what the comic books, movies and TV shows are saying. If we are to rise, we must ourselves become the heroes.