I sure can’t WAIT to read all these white liberal think pieces by white MCU stans on why Wakanda is oppressive, misogynistic, backwards and harmful. They’ll talk endlessly about how the whole royal family thing is corrupt and be hyper critical about it, yet they’ve said nothing about Asgard and it’s royal family. They’ll say Wakanda is selfish for “hoarding” technology + not sharing it with the outside (read: White) world. Boy, this is gonna be a wild, migraine inducing ride

:

*There’s
gonna be white people in fandom who justify reducing T’Challa to a Sugar Daddy
and Vibranium dispenser for Steve and other Whites by saying “Well in the
comics, he designed the Quinjet for the Avengers so it’s totally
plausible…”. The way they twist and exploit T’Challa’s noble, kind
nature with stuff like “He’s a good, selfless guy so he’d do this!”
to shout down rightfully angry black fans is gross and tiring. 

I’ve been preparing for this
– all of this – from the second that I first had confirmation that the Black Panther film
was in the works. One thing I don’t think most non-black members get is that
from the moment that a Black character gets introduced, Black fans start
worrying. They see “T’challa takes care of the Avengers” as a positive
because it’s what they want from him,
not bothering to look at the history of how Black characters and people have regularly been forced
into playing “nanny” positions for white characters and people.

So from the moment that I was
first told “Hey, just so you know, Black Panther will be a thing,” I knew that things would get bad. They would
get creepy. Fans would pant after T’challa’s BBC the way they did with every
single Black character ni fandom as if Black men are only

Because we’d already been
through fandom looking at Sam and seeing a psychologist, a secret HYDRA agent,
or someone who exists only to serve and protect the white Avengers because
they’re freaking TODDLERS.  

We’d already been through
#NickFuryLies being a major point of characterization in the fandom despite the
fact that Nick is not even remotely required to spill his entire plans to the
kind of untrustworthy Avengers who had proven over multiple times that they
were incapable of being responsible.

We’d already seen how fandom
literally erased Rhodey from Tony’s life because Steve (who Tony doesn’t even like
half the time) is somehow a better friend than the man that has been with
Tony for most of his life and who knows him better than he knows himself.

So really, Black fans knew that shit was going to get ugly when T’challa was officially introduced to the MCU.

And okay, I think a really huge sign that these T’challa
“fans” who are slotting him into the Sugar Daddy role for the
avengers really don’t understand anything about his characterization in any
film/show/comic he’s been in.

Like you said, they’re all
“he’s so kind and selfless so of
course he’d drop a couple billion bucks on making sure the Avengers have
the best toys” when part of what makes T’challa such a great character is
how flawed he can be.

 He can be kind and is a king, but he’s also human. Which
means making mistakes and making decisions that are more selfish than selfless.
But fandom is too busy salivating over the idea that the richest man in the MCU
can now be at the beck and call of their white favorites to care that his actual personality isn’t a damn think like the Sugar Daddy they’re dead set on turning him into.

And let’s be very real here:
on no level in any universe has
T’challa ever flung money at the Avengers because it was “the right thing
to do” and he’s certainly not going to start here. Yeah, T’challa has
Bucky literally chilling in Wakanda, but that doesn’t mean that suddenly, the
country he and his ancestors have kept safe and secluded for centuries to
protect them from colonialization and whiteness is suddenly going to lay out
the welcome mat for the Avengers and their assorted family members.

Fandom doesn’t get that what
they’re doing is wrong with these AUs and the passive aggressive posts and the
super shitty characterization they slap on T’challa because they don’t want to
get it. They want to write their super racist, colonialism-worshiping AUs
without people calling them on their shit. They want to reduce Black men to
what’s between their legs without being criticized.

You know… because it’s just fandom.

That’s where you get the willful
“oh Black Panther is for everyone, stop segregating” bs you see every
time a Black fan brings up that Black Panther and T’challa have a special and
specific place in Black nerd history and hearts.

I don’t think non-Black fans
realize how important T’challa and Wakanda are to Black comic fans across the
diaspora and how Black fans are sick to death of fandom ’s fucked up
characterizations for Black characters, but they’re going to learn.