Is "Black Panther" Insulting and Disrespectful to Black Americans? Part 2 of a Very Special Episode of The Chauncey DeVega Show

This is part 2 of the special fundraising month all things Black Panther episode of The Chauncey DeVega Show. It is also Chauncey DeVega's way of saying thanks to all of the kind folks who have put some gold, silver, paper, or other monies into the donation bucket here at chaunceydevega.com

There is approximately one more week left in the fundraiser. We are close to the goal. Any help would be appreciated in help us cross the finish line so that this fundraiser can be a success. The virtual begging bowl can be found on the right side of the screen at the Paypal link.

There are two great guests on this week's very special surprise episode.

In the first conversation, Chauncey spoke with Adilifu Nama about the new Black Panther movie. In that episode of the podcast, Chauncey also chimed in with his brief thoughts about the movie after viewing the movie the night of the debut. After that first viewing--and yes after seeing the movie a second time--Chauncey feels that it is very problematic and its "progressive" bonafides are much overrated, especially in terms of how it treats black Americans.

Adilifu Nama is an Associate Professor of African American Studies at Loyola Marymount University and the author of the new book Super Black: American Pop Culture and Black Superheroes. Adilifu feels that the new Black Panther film is a "flawed masterpiece". He and Chauncey have a friendly debate about the movie, its cultural politics, the Black Atlantic, the problems with the character "Killmonger", and how Black Panther could have benefited from having some experts on African-American history and culture consult on the film.

Chris Lebron also stops by the virtual bar and salon. He is a professor of philosophy at Johns Hopkins University. He is also the author of the very controversial essay "'Black Panther' is Not the Movie We Deserve" which was featured over at the Boston Review. There, Lebron offers a sharp intervention about the politics of Black Panther and how the latter is extremely problematic and conservative in terms of its understanding of the black freedom struggle. Professor Lebron is also very critical of how Black Panther depicts black men as well as working class and poor black communities.  

And in the spirit of the Marvel Cinematic Universe there is also a post-credits "stinger" (i.e. Easter egg) at the very end of the podcast.

This episode with Chris Lebron and Adilifu Nama can be downloaded from Libsyn and also listened to here.

The Chauncey DeVega Show is available on Itunes, Spotify and at Stitcher.