Race and Representation in Popular Culture – What Black Panther Teaches Us

Representation of race in popular culture is, like many aspects of media consumption, a point of social contention. Marvel’s recently-released Black Panther provides a brilliant entry point for considering some key points about the issue. And having had the chance to watch Black Panther in cinemas last week, I felt inspired to talk about it. As a white woman, what do we mean when we say representation? Does it matter? If so, why, and what can we do about it?

[DISCLAIMER: I thought this movie was brilliant. You’ll probably read that a few more times in the post. While I’ll do my best to avoid spoilers, just be aware that if you haven’t yet watched it, you might stumble on some plot points.]

What Does ‘Representation’ Really Mean?

A quick google search (don’t judge me, my dictionary is in Lawton and I’m in Chicago) defines representation as:

the description or portrayal of someone or something in a particular way or as being of a certain nature.

But what does that actually mean? The latter half of the definition, “as being of a certain nature,” is crucial here. It tells us that when we are continually shown particular views of society, we accept them as the norm. Skewed ethnic, religious, racial, or gender demographics, and stereotypical portrayals stick with us, even if we don’t think they do. The information we feed to our brains becomes part of our paradigm; it defines how we view and interact with the world.

What do the Stats Say?

White people dominate the vast majority of movies Hollywood produces. Articles from 2015 and 2016 (ok, it’s not that long ago, people) such as those by PBS and NPR about a major University of Southern California (USC) study of diversity in film and television, demonstrate this.

Only 7% of films have “a cast whose balance of race and ethnicity reflected the country’s diversity.” And although nearly 40% of the US population is comprised of non-white racial/ethnic groups, less than 30% of characters with dialogue were non-white. This is vital statistic: dialogue is one of the most powerful methods for revealing a character’s personality. Characters without (meaningful) dialogue are often quickly reduced to little more than trite stereotypes.

So representation refers to the meaningful portrayal of populations that are nuanced, complex, and interesting… rather than using non-white characters as a foil for all-white (or predominantly-white) casts.* What’s the big deal though?

Why Does Representation Matter?

Inevitably there are large proportions of the population who feel that these kinds of discussions are the premise of ‘the hurt feelings brigade’. But if we consider that by its very definition, representation (in this case, in pop culture) affects how we view the world, we begin to see how important it is. For white people, this can be a hard concept to grasp. Most of us have spent our whole lives seeing ourself—or variations thereof—in every form of popular culture we consume.

White superheroes, white action heroes, brilliant white scientists, attractive white men and women inundate us… They dominate our screens. And because they, these implicit portrayals of ‘us’ are everywhere, it can be hard for white people to imagine how it might feel to those who haven’t had similar representation.

Why do Some People think this Doesn’t Matter?

The knee-jerk reaction is often a defensive one. What does it matter? What a ridiculous thing to care about! To me, this is an example of cognitive dissonance (which I’ve spoken about before here). Wanting to believe we’re good people, it’s hard for us to be told our white dominance of popular culture is harmful. To avoid facing our own role in it, we’d rather believe that discussions about racial representation in pop culture are ‘social justice warrior bullshit’. They aren’t.

Every child in the world deserves to see themselves in a superhero. 

As children, what we see in popular culture and the media we consume, we internalise as ‘normal’. Children notice when there aren’t any black heroes; white children unknowingly assimilate that black people are more likely to carjack them. This is an undeniable fact. And yet popular culture perpetuates stereotypes that denigrate and pigeonhole non-white (and frequently, non-male) characters. The dialogue of Latino & mixed-race characters is more related to sexuality. POC characters have a greater percentage of swear words (USC Stereotypes Study). And as The Brown Political Review succinctly notes, “the more those stereotypes play out on the silver screen, the more ingrained they become in the brains of consumers, and the more validated the pernicious social biases that fueled them become.” (I highly recommend checking that article out, it’s brilliant).

White Supremacy in Black Panther

I strongly recommend checking out Ijeoma Olou’s thoughts on White Supremacy in Black Panther in her Facebook post, here. She is an incredible writer, whose work about oppression and race in America is succinct, insightful, and powerful (her debut novel, So You Want to Talk About Race, was published earlier this year).

Olou draws attention to facts that, as a white viewer, it is all too easy to gloss over or miss entirely: that Black Panther’s villain not N’Jadaka, but White Supremacy. I won’t attempt to do justice to Olou’s points (you’d be much better off reading her words yourself). Rather, I’d invite us all to keep an open mind (especially if you’re a white person who finds these conversations confronting and enraging). We can’t dismiss or negate another human’s lived experience simply because we have travelled through the world differently. And we have to accept the experiences of oppressed communities are different to ours, and believe them despite those experiences contradicting our own. We have to honour their truth.

What Can You & I Do About Better Representation in Pop Culture?

So, faced with all of this information, the question inevitably rears its head: what can I do about it? Luckily, what you can do is simple: support representative films. We can all use our most powerful tool—our presence and, by implication, our money—to show Hollywood exactly what we will and will not tolerate. I saw Black Panther in cinemas because I wanted my ticket to count. Cynical it may be, but big corporations don’t care about our feelings: they care about money. So use your presence to show them what you value in films: representation, diversity, nuanced and interesting portrayals of all people across a range of roles, not just white heroes and black ‘thugs’.

Black Panther is a fantastic movie. The characters are smart and complex and interesting, the women are powerful and strong, and fascinating characters in their own rights. It is exciting and enthralling and magical… and it is ALL of these things despite having almost no white characters. It has demolished box office records, proving the financial power of representation in pop culture. The portrayal of black characters beyond the narrow and 2-dimensionsal stereotypes often found in Hollywood, is a sociocultural triumph. If you haven’t seen it yet, I can’t recommend it enough.

Tune in later this week (if I get my act together!) to hear all about our wild trip to Chicago, the Windy City!

— Ana.

*There’s also a lot to be said about Hollywood white-washing stories belonging to non-white cultures and ethnicities. If you’re interested in reading more about this, please check out these articles in The Guardian, The Independent, and The Toronto Star.