Any topic (writer’s choice)

For your replies
Choose TWO peer posts to respond to.
• Begin each reply by addressing your colleague by name.
• Then spell out which idea or observation or connection you are responding to in particular. You might consider quoting the part of the post and then responding directly to it.
• Then explain how / why you find this valuable. What does it add to your understanding? How does it pose new questions for you or shed new light or extend your thinking? What
connection(s) does it suggest to you? Plan to spend at least 5 sentences on each of your replies. Also, remember the guidelines we created as a group to help us build a relatively safe and fruitful learning community.

PEER ONE

Part A.
A theme, intention, or point that I see in Coates and Stelfreeze’s comic is (Black Panther) King T’Challas’s struggle to find a way to be king, and his overcoming his intention to always fight. In the chapter of Southeast Wakanda, Nigadan Borderlands (7,8 from that point), I noticed visual choices and elements that enhanced and illuminated a prominent theme, intention, purpose, and point by Stelfreeze using the use of cool and warm-toned colors in the illustration. He uses a pink/red color as a background, while he uses a blue/dark blue as the characters. I believe his intention was to have the character’s actions as the focus and emotional side of the characters. Coates included five dialogue speech bubbles out of the two pages, which I think he wanted the illustration to convey what was happening in the scene.

Part B.
After reading Black Panther and watching the film Ethnic Notations I noticed connections between them such as racial stereotypes and power, and how racist images and objects of the past are still evident today. In the comic Black Panther is portrayed as a black superhero (a black batman perse). His shamanistic powers and personality traits to non-white characters are portrayed as in tune with nature/animals and unfazed by trauma.
The film discusses the origin of stereotypes, and how it reflects ideologies and power.

Part C.
“Your black friend wonders if you know that, unlike you, he has to constantly monitor his speech, dress, and affect relative to his environment and a misreading could mean the difference being the black friend or the black guy..” (3 Passmore). In Black Panther, there are controversial opinions about who and what the Black panther portrays. From my understanding, he portrays a king and protector of Wakanda. He dresses in a black suit depicting almost like a black Batman.

PEER TWO

1. In Black Panther by Ta-Nehisi Coates illustrated by Brian Stelfreeze, a point that I see in the second half of the comic is in order to be a good leader you have to give yourself to your country. On page 89 you can see that Stelfreeze drew T’Challa kneeling down and talking to a kid instead of him standing tall, which seem like he looking down on his people. But here Stelfreeze visual choice of drawing how T’Challa body movement greatly effect that he is trying to be good leader for his country and caring for them. A kind usually don’t kneel down they are usually looking down on there people, and don’t have that bond with the people of their country. Stelfreeze did a great job of showing T’Challa leadership changes, from the people hating him to them trusting him again.
2. A connection between Ethnic Notions and Black Panther both have is that black stereotype where black people always portray as a bad guy even if they are hero or a policemen. In the film they talk about how a black cop is portrayed as the violence cop where the white is the good cop. This is similar to how Coates and Stelfreeze bring that stereotype to Black Panther because T’Challa is portray in the comic as a bad hero and how his has a terrible past. But unlike other where the black character would kill off the show or comic, Coates and Stelfreeze didn’t do that instead they did a character development where T’Challa is a good guy again at the end.
3.
1. In “Afrofuturism: The Next Generation” by Ruth La Ferla, a part i see a connection to Black Panther is when she said, “They also see themselves newly reflected in the comic books that remain a potent form of Afrofuturist expression” (4). Stelfreeze really did a great job of capturing the culture of African very well, he wanted to let other know about the cultures and draw the styles in a way that you can tell that it African culture. Like on page 90 with Tetu face painting and his clothing styles and the wand stick that he use. The use of tree and flowers and how they possessed magic, just like how African culture are.
2. In McCloud’s “Show and Tell” he pointed out “As near as we can tell pictures predate the written word by a large margin” (141). We see this concept in The Best We Could Do by Thi Bui, because she has a lot of pages where it just pictures and it’s up to us to fill in the blank. There’s a saying a picture is worth a thousand words, I believe this because our mind is so creative it is able to look at pictures and create a story out of it. I think that what Bui want us to learn, because back in the day there was no words to describe what going on instead it was fill with symbols to represent the story. Pictures it self is like a “primitive language” (141).