"Black Panther: Wakanda Forever": representation and diversity
This post was written by a student. It has not been fact checked or edited.
I AM NOT BLACK, BUT I AM BLACK.
As a student coming from an Arab country, Palestine; I feel strongly attached and attracted to "Black Panther: Wakanda Forever". I have never seen black people represented like Black Panther represented them. The film introduced black people as people with morals, culture and civilization; all in all people with their own identity. Having a first look at the movie and noticing the black cast, I thought that this is something against diversity. It took me by surprise to realize that the movie represented the cultures of people from different countries: "In a historical sense, both Black Panther films allude to real cultures and traditions from Kemet, Ethiopia, Mali, Ghana, and Songhai..." It occurs to my mind that the idea of "labeling" is the worst thing that could happen to anyone. Pointing to anyone with labels like "he is black", or "he is an Arab", forgetting the great diversity we can find in black countries or Arab countries, is something we need to avoid. We should understand that each country in our world has its own traditions, culture and identity. While watching some movies, I noticed that Arabs are represented as people riding a camel and living in the desert. To be honest, it is really annoying seeing yourself and your culture restricted to one idea. That's why I am saying I am not black, but I am black; I understand black people and their feelings when they are represented in a way that doesn’t introduce them in the way they are.
Being part of topical talk family among hundreds of students from countries from around the world discussing several topics is something I want to shed light on. We represent ourselves and our countries; here we are allowed to express our thoughts freely. We tell each other about our communities. I myself now know a lot of things about other countries I didn’t know before. I sometimes have an opinion, but after reading other topical talkers' comments or standpoints I change my mind or at least I come up with a new point of view. With all of these things, I guess that Topical Talk is an amazing chance for each student to help and enlighten others to the idea of diversity.