The last 3 major Hollywood productions for Black people had women as primary defenders of nations and now two Black men beating the hell out of each other. Where is the balance? How about Black men and women working together? How about Black men working together?
The Woman King which there was historically no such title shows the Dohomey female warriors called the Agojie (Kings Wives) or the Mino (Our Mothers) as being successful against the Europeans. While they successfully supported the male army in overcoming other African kingdoms they were not against Europeans. They were actually slaughtered. However, this doesn’t matter because the movie serves a larger purpose. It’s not to empower women as much as it is to remove the image of Black men protecting themselves, their families, and communities as the Panthers did from the consciousness of Black men.
We saw the same thing in Wakanda Forever with the female warriors called the Dora Milaje. Wakanda Forever was released very shortly after the Woman King. Normally, Black movies are not released so close to each other in temporal proximity.
When I expressed some of these ideas to a Black Woman, she said I was not comfortable with Black men losing power to Black women. I knew I was not going to win this argument or get her to see my side so I stopped pointing out the peculiarities. My immediate thought was Black men in the U.S. have never been in power so how could we be losing what we have never had to Black women?
Now, we see Creed III where two Black men are beating the hell out of each other. Where is the balance? These movies should be exceptions considering the experiences and current experience of Black People in America.
