Final Cultural Artifact Transcript

Sara Kim

AMST203: Popular Culture in America

Brienne Adams
January 22, 2019
 Hello! name is Sara Kim and I am so glad you decided to tune into my podcast. I have a
very exciting topic for today: Black Panther. Everyone and their mothers have seen this amazing
film, and if you haven’t yet, where have you been?? Anyways, I’m excited to talk about this
movie because it is so much more than an awesome, action packed movie. Black Panther is a
pivotal movie because it places black people in a role, center stage, with an all-black main cast,
black producers, black director, black supporting crew, and features black artists. Now, why is
representation so important, especially to minority groups? It’s important because it “confronts
the myths and stereotypes, as well as seeks authentic and compelling stories” of a group1. Black
Panther breaks boundaries once so strong in black cinema and popular culture. It’s a true
example of shifting representation of African Americans in film in today’s American popular
culture.
So, why is seeing a black cast and black crew on the big screen a big deal anyways?
Well, let’s look historically. It is too obvious that the film industry is dominated by whiteness
since its inception. However, while doing research on African American film, I found something
really interesting. During the early to mid-1900s, whenever there were films that were produced
with a designated African American audience, it was labeled as a “race film”2. I would say this is
some of the first real positive representations of African Americans in film. “Race films” were
prominent because they were tools used during the African American “uplift” movement. There
was a whole community of African American filmmakers including a production company called
The Foster Photoplay Company, Afro-American Film Company, the Hunter C. Haynes
Photoplay Company, and the Peter P. Jones Photoplay company3. All these production
companies specialized in African American film and created films that up advanced and inspired
the African American community. So, yay! African American representation for the win, right?
Unfortunately, no. Barely any of these films were successful or survived, leaving behind only
posters, advertisements, and theatre programs4. “Race films” rarely got any substantial or serious
recognition from the “mainstream” press5. Films like Birth of a Nation, which celebrated the role
of the Ku Klux Klan in the reconstruction era and portrayed African Americans as violent,
sexual, and insidious, were the ones that became box office record breakers and thus consumed
by the masses6. So, although there was a community of African American filmmakers and
producers historically, their films were never received the same way as mainstream ones. This is
exactly why Black Panther matters. Black Panther is important because it creates real
representation of a people who were marginalized for so long and it redefines and reclaims
negative stereotypes that were created.
We know the United States is a huge country with a lot of people. Let’s look at the
demographic breakdown of the country. In the united states, 63.7% of people identify as white,
12.6% identify as black, 16.3% identify as Hispanic, and 4.8% identify as Asian7. As a minority
myself, it’s so important for me to see equal and real representation of not only other Asians, but

1
Kidd, “The Revolution Will Not Be Available on iTunes…”, 36.
2
Berry, et al, “History”.
3
Berry, et al.
4
Berry, et al.
5
Berry, et al.
6
Kidd, “The Revolution Will Not Be Available on iTunes…”, 40.
7
Kidd, “The Revolution Will Not Be Available on iTunes…”, 42.
other minorities as well in film and popular culture. As Stuart Hall states, “popular culture is the
ground on which transformations are worked”8 That’s why I chose Black Panther.
In Chapter two of Dustin Kidd’s book, Pop Culture Freaks: Identity, Mass Media and
Society, he analyzes racial representation in film. Here’s that breakdown: Asians comprised 7.1%
of speaking or named roles, 71.2% were white, 13.2% were black, and 4.9% were Hispanic9.
Based on these statistics, African Americans are actual overrepresented in film! This should be a
good thing, right? Well, It’s a lot more complicated than that. Kidd’s analysis is significant
because this brings into the question of what is better: qualitative or quantitative representation.
In chapter one of the book mentioned before, Kidd describes the differences between quantity
and quality in terms of representation. Quantitatively, according to Kidd, means we must look at
what groups are overrepresented, what groups are proportionally represented, what groups are
underrepresented, and what groups have absolutely no representation at all. Quantitative
representation is done by using demographic statistics10. So, quantitatively, African American
representation is flourishing (I’d say in terms of pure audience and content demographics, not
producer demographics). However, I think it’s more important to recognize qualitative
representation. Kidd states that we should examine stereotypes that produce “distorted notions
about certain groups, including both minority and majority groups”11. Films can create what
sociologist Patricia Hill Collins refers to as controlling images12. These images are powerful and
can be widespread enough to constitute as stereotypes. Black Panther is multidimensional in that
it both quantitatively and qualitatively creates representation in a positive way.
Black Panther is part of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, released on February 16th, 2018.
It’s about King T’Challa, AKA the Black Panther, and his fight to secure the safety and freedom
of the Wakandan people with the help of his allies. Like I said before, Black Panther has an all-
black main cast, has a black director, and features black musical artists. Not only is
representation there in numbers via the intersection of representation and employment of black
actors and producers, but because those producing and creating this film are black, they can
create counterimages that reclaim the qualitative, controlling images of black people in film. One
of the main actresses of the film, Lupita Nyong’o, says that after seeing the finished film, she
was ““So so so excited” because the cast felt such a sense of ownership of what they “thoroughly
enjoyed making.””13. I like how Kristen J. Warner puts it in her article “Plastic Representation”.
Warner describes how many people see “meaningful diversity” as the appearance of different
looking bodies appear on screen. However, she goes to state that “the degree of diversity became
synonymous with the quantity of difference rather than with the dimensionality of those
performances”14. The key word here is dimensionality. The film is set in a technologically savvy
and futuristic country of Wakanda. In the film, there are images of black people as noble
warriors as seen in the Nobari, as genius, yet very sarcastic, scientists as seen in the character
Shuri, as kind and humble care givers such as the character Ramonda, and even as hated in the
character Erik Killmonger. Black Panther successfully diverges from the idea that representation

8
Hall, “Notes on Deconstructing ‘the Popular’”, 443.
9
Kidd, “The Revolution Will Not Be Available on iTunes…”, 40.
10
Kidd, “The Matrix Is Everywhere…”, 16.
11
Kidd, “The Matrix Is Everywhere…”, 16.
12
Kidd, “The Matrix Is Everywhere…”, 16.
13
See, “The Cast and Crew of Marvel’s ‘Black Panther’…”.
14
Warner, “Plastic Representation”.
just means placing more black people on the screen. They give the characters development and
complexity and deviate from the damaging controlling images that are so prevalent in popular
culture.
I think Black panther can also attribute its great success to its cultural potency. In chapter
two of Kidd’s book, he relays Michael Schudson’s “Five Dimensions of Cultural Potency”,
which combines both cultural production and audience reception to a cultural object, which in
this case is Black Panther. First, retrievability. It is readily accessible and affordable to consume.
Technology like cinema embodies systems of access that are “culturally available within normal
social development, without any form of selective cultural training”15. The film was in theaters
across the world, in all different languages. Even the original comics can be found online for
free. Second, it has rhetorical force. Black Panther has become synonymous with black
empowerment since it breaks the stereotypical molds created for black roles in film. Third, it
creates resonance. When people see actors who look and have qualities like themselves, it
becomes familiar, and that’s exactly what Black Panther does with black representation. Fourth,
it has institutional retention. Wherever you go, you can cross your arms and say “Wakanda
Forever!” and almost everyone will know what you mean. Black Panther is a global phenomenon
with lasting effects. And last, it provides a resolution. Black Panther has opened a great dialogue
about black representation not only in film, but in American culture and politics.
Black Panther is more than just another superhero movie. It is a powerful film that strips
away the symbolic violence that held black actors and producers down for so long. The success
of this film is an example of seeing society’s shifting perception of black people via film.
Negative stereotypes and myths are reclaimed and controlling images destroyed through the
complex and diverse presentation of the characters in the film. Black Panther comprehensively
approaches representation by redefining black representation in cinema, both qualitatively and
quantitatively. Its impact is enduring, and has opened opportunity and conversations about
representation in film and American pop culture.

15
Williams, “Means of Production”, 111.
 Bibliography
Berry, Monica, Marika Cifor, Karla Contreras, Hanna Girma, William Lam, Shanya Norman,
Miriam Posner, and Aya Grace. n.d. “History.” EARLY AFRICAN AMERICAN FILM.
University of California, Los Angeles. Accessed January 22, 2019.
http://dhbasecamp.humanities.ucla.edu/afamfilm/whatis/history/.
Hall, Stuart. 1998. “Notes on Deconstructing ‘the Popular’.” In Cultural Theory and Popular
Culture: a Reader, edited by John Storey, 442-453. Athens, GA: University of Georgia Press,
1998.
Kidd, Dustin. 2014.“The Matrix Is Everywhere: An Introduction to the Sociology of Popular
Culture.” In POP CULTURE FREAKS: Identity, Mass Media, and Society, edited by Rhonda E.
Dugan, et al, 1-30. Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 2014.
Kidd, Dustin. 2014. “The Revolution Will Not Be Available on iTunes: Racial Perspectives.” In
POP CULTURE FREAKS: Identity, Mass Media, and Society, edited by Rhonda E. Dugan, et al,
31-62. Boulder, CO: Westview Press, 2014.
See, DaVette. 2018. “The Cast and Crew of Marvel's 'Black Panther' Share Their Reactions About
the Film.” Black Girl Nerds. February 5, 2018. https://blackgirlnerds.com/the-cast-and-crew-of-
marvels-black-panther-share-their-reactions-about-the-film/.
Warner, Kristen J. 2017. Plastic Representation.” Film Quarterly. The Regents of the University of
California. December 4, 2017. https://filmquarterly.org/2017/12/04/in-the-time-of-plastic-
representation/.
Williams, Raymond. n.d. “Means of Production.” In The Sociology of Culture. Chicago, IL: Univ. of
Chicago Press.