Black Panther Friday

I don't know if y'all know this or not, but the history of this country -- the REAL history of it and not the whitewashed sludge you got every February when you were in single digits -- is beyond effed.

We got the appellation of lazy, but we didn't sail to Europe in the 15th century so we could make other people build a nation for us.

For us, and on top of us. Maybe that's why the sight of Central Park has repulsed me for a solid three decades. After all, this is where we can build the White House and then wait half a millennium to get one of our own in it, only for him to be replaced by a rotten mango reading the worst YouTube comments in 140 character bursts.

Forgive us, and specifically me, for failing to be William DeVaughn about this turn of events. But I can tell you this: Being black in America is damn hard, and being a nerd was no easy thing for me growing up.

Blerd had yet to be invented. ?uest had yet to be beamed into people's feeds five nights a week. DAMN. was something you said when your folks weren't around, even if they said it all the damn time, not something to listen to sitting on your bed dreaming of a better future.

Dreaming of a better place.

A place built on black love and respect--on knowledge and science--that could look good, kick ass, and still have a bumping soundtrack.

No, brothers and sisters, the revolution will not be televised.

But a pretty nice depiction of one is hitting the screens of a movie theater come February 16th.

There has never been anything else that compares to Wakanda put on a screen with this quality a cast and this level of production and promotion going into it.

And as impossible as that dream seemed, we were going to get possibly the most powerful entertainment entity not just acknowledging black culture, not just giving it the juicy back-up role but letting it shine brightly for two hours and letting EVERYBODY know about it?

When I found out about the women-only screenings of Wonder Woman last year, my reactions came two-fold and immediate:

1) Well-deserved and sadly necessary;

2) They better be ready next year for some ish to jump off at the all-black Black Panther screenings.

I said the second as a joke that part of me always knew wasn't kidding, the same way part of my reaction to "Somebody needs to make this happen" was "I AM somebody."

More specifically, I am the somebody who just rented out a theater 105 deep to make that vision of the audience on Black Friday itself reflect the action on the screen; well, less the two Tolkien white guys (thanks, Tumblr).

So on February 16th, 2018, with your support, I can not only house an all-black Black Panther screening but also raise some money for the Southern Poverty Law Center.  They're a pretty famous non-profit you might've heard of after Charlottesville that attempts to combat prejudicism with education and litigation, probably the two best ways to go about changing the way America thinks under America's rules.

All the proceeds from this fundraiser will be going to the SPLC; donations will be sent to me, and I will send a check to the SPLC in that amount once we have allocated a final tally.

The theater is costing me $1,305, but I figured in the name of non-profit and fighting racism with movie magic and black nerdery, some rounding up would make a small bit of positive difference in this bleak world under the Tweeting thumb of Dolt 45.

I don't do this to rule as a king, to fly like a superhero, get my script read, my wallet filled, or any other reason besides the fact it's an idea whose time is well past come, made all the more obvious by the fact that a connection-less blerd in San Diego is doing something five-year-old him would've loved if he ever could've conceived of it.

That's (probably more than) enough of me talking about it.

It's long past time for us to do it.