Wearisome Wakanda

The racial marketing is clear. Hispanics now have a Marvel fantasyland, alongside blacks’ Wakanda and an Asians paradise in Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings.

There’s no diversity in any of those places! They are true ethnostates. Whites have nothing of their own in the world of Marvel. There are plenty of white characters, but no white settings, and main characters who used to be white are gradually being killed off or replaced with non-whites.

The film ends with a brown-black alliance. Cruz Castillo of the National Hispanic Media Coalition wrote this about Wakanda Forever: “Black and brown communities going hand-in-hand, pulling one up and the other pulling the other, you know... I think that’s the progress. I think it’s going to change everything.”

Tenoch Huerta Mejía, who plays Namor, has been complaining that Hispanic television is too white and that “Mexico looks on the TV like a Scandinavian country.” (Actually, Hispanic television has fewer Somalis.)

Mr. Mejía is also promoting the idea that “America’s a continent” (instead of a country) and that “we’re all of us, we’re Americans.” (I predict that Americans calling themselves “Americans” will soon be considered offensive).

We probably won’t see evil, fantasy all-white nations. Any collective white representation, even a negative one, might give whites the wrong idea. But Western countries with white politicians, soldiers, and bureaucrats will no doubt be the Black Panther’s next enemy. She can slaughter individual whites, but there can never be a “white country,” no matter how evil.

If black nationalists weren’t too busy screaming “Wakanda Forever!” they would be insulted that Big Mouse is making millions on non-white racial fantasy.

There can never be a movieland white identity. A plausible white villain could always become an antihero. We can feel sorry for blacks, Hispanics, and other groups searching for meaning at the movie theater. Disney and other corporate media can’t deal with our identity because our movement is serious — a threat in the way nothing else is. Non-white nationalism is bread and circuses to keep the rabble calm. Our culture is not a costume; you can buy a Black Panther mask at Walmart.