Museums & Black Panther

Just this past weekend my friends and I decided to go to a movie-- The Black Panther. I didn't know what to expect as I entered the theater with my overpriced bag of popcorn and oversized medium drink. As the movie ended, there was one scene that wouldn't escape my mind.

Read on only if you have already seen or don't intend on seeing the movie.

The movie begins with the main antagonist, Erik Killmonger, dressed in urban streetwear enters a museum. He looks at his surroundings-- stark White walls and clean glass cases with African objects carefully being displayed. Three White security guards are watching him closely. Soon, he is greeted by a woman curator. It is obvious that all four of the alternative characters are watching him closely,

Erik asks the curators about various objects on display, and she is able to answer his questions quickly and accurately. Erik asks about one specific object, and tells the curator her information is wrong. He explains the object came from Wakanda. The mood of their conversation quickly changes. Erik says the museum staff should have paid less attention to him being inside a museum (*) than to her own drink-- which was poisoned. Two more men enter the scene and they kill the rest of the museum staff protecting the collection. They collect the rare minerals, and, last minute, Erik decides to grab another mask because he said he was "just feelin' it." (*). Erik then uses the mask in a later seen during an act of domestic/political terrorism. (*) While this scene was early on in the movie, I found it to be particularly memorable. The subliminal messages in this scene speak to three major points I'd like to discuss. The first of these points is the museum was shown to be a predominately White institution despite the collections featuring African objects. In this scene, Erik is seen as an "intruder" because of the color or his skin. The security guards don't trust him, and the interactions between the curator and Erik seemed stifled. This represents the idea of museums as being places for educated White people rather than people like Erik, Black and wearing streetwear.

The second point refers to the objects of the collection being stolen or, "taken without explicit permission." The curator is obviously knowledgeable and is able to speak about the objects on display. She tells Erik where the objects "came from", but fails to recognize where the "origin" of the objects. Erik's comment about "just feelin' it" is similar to the mindset of White men in history taking objects from overseas and bringing them back because they "just like the way they look."

My third point refers to Erik using the mask he stole from the museum during a terrorist attack he plotted on domestic soil. This can be seen in one of two ways. The first way could be Erik reclaiming his identity that was destroyed by White men in an attack against White men. Or, perhaps the object has no real connection to Erik, but he appropriates it just as it had been in the museum. Many of these thoughts need to be fleshed out more, and ideally I would like to see the movie one more time to get a better feel for this short but impactful scene. What do you all think?