Black Panther: An Observation

The new Marvel Studios film Black Panther is epic. Director, actors, screen writers, custom designers, and production team have created an engaging and dramatic story that will challenge many of our perspectives. In this blog, however, I will not provide a review of the film but comment on one significant insight.

Without giving too much away, early in the film a man is killed. He is the father of a young child who is ignored and left behind. The child is a royal prince of the kingdom of Wakanda, and this abandonment will have tragic consequences in the future.

This event reminded me that we are leaving too many children behind and abandoning them to poverty, disease, ignorance and violence. This is true not only in other countries but in the United States as well.

When it comes to economic status, the Washington Post reports, “In the richest nation in the world, one in three kids live in poverty.” According to UNICEF, one billion children around the world live in poverty; that is every second child.

Children are often the objects of violence, whether it is abduction and enslavement by rebels and criminals around the world or school shooters and neighborhood killings in the US.

Legislators in the US fail to budget adequate funds for education for children and limit the time that teachers can spend with students, making a mockery of our educational system. Other countries often excel in childhood education due to their commitment to provide proper funding and staffing, an investment in the future of their nations.

If we fail to nurture, protect, and educate our children, we sacrifice our future and theirs. We cannot leave any child behind. This is the truth voiced by King T-Challa when he rebukes his father by shouting, “You should not have left him behind!”

We should listen and act.

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