TheRealBreezy2x @therealbreezy2x - Tumblr Blog

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I just got back from taking my 76-year-old Mom to see My Favourite Movie Of All Time...

Now she understands why my son and I have taken to calling her “The Queen Mother”, since we first saw the movie a few weeks ago. (I’ve since seen it two more times, my son has now seen it four times collectively now)

I’m not at all ashamed to say that tears rolled down my cheeks several times, just from seeing my Mom’s reaction to certain parts of the movie.

I couldn’t help but remember being a little boy less than 9 years old when she went to Africa for work and came back with traditional spears, jewelry, clothes, etc. from her journeys through Kenya, Ghana and Nigeria… How I clung desperately to her leg the day she was leaving and cried incessantly, because I wanted so badly to go too but she couldn’t take me…. How my eyes widened when she gleefully told me stories about her visit to the Motherland when she came back.

Despite getting a divorce from her almost a decade before he passed, my Dad still had the dashikis she had brought back for him from Africa hanging proudly in his closet, decades later. He made a whole lot of memories in them over the years before that day came.

I’m a little sad my Dad (who passed away at the ripe old age of 81) wasn’t able to experience this with me as well before he moved on. I’m sure he would initially say the movie was “bullshit” (because he only really appreciated old school Westerns lol). But I also know that without a doubt he would also understand what this film represented for us as as Black people; let alone as Black people from one of the world’s most Urbanised “Third World Nations” that hardly anyone outside of the Caribbean can find on a map. 🇹🇹

So much emotions, so much history. So perfect sharing this amazing film with the Woman who gave me life.

I had to wait 45 long years for this moment. My mom had to wait 76. My son is studying theatre and acting… he has even said he’s even thinking about possibly doing film work. He saw this movie at only 19.

He was 17 when we both saw Get Out (the writer/director of which went on to win the first Oscar a black man has ever gotten for Original Screenplay writing).

The actor who plays M’Baku in Black Panther is from our country. And so was one of the Dora Milaje actresses. As well as two people who worked on graphics and VFX stuff behind the scenes.

My son saw the movie knowing all of this information beforehand.

Imagine what else my son will see before the sun has set on his life.

My daughter is only 9. She dressed up as Harley Quinn two Halloweens ago after Suicide Squad came out. Then she was Princess Leia last year, having finally been introduced to Star Wars. I’m fairly confident she’ll wanna go trick or treating as either a Dora Milaje warrior or Shuri in 2018 lol.

Thank you for this moment Ryan Coogler, Marvel Studios, Kevin Feige, Nate Moore, ALL of the cast and crew of Black Panther, Stan Lee, Jack Kirby, Reginald Hudlin, Christopher Priest, Ta-Nehisi Coates, Roxane Gay and anyone else I may be overlooking.

Thank you for contributing in whatever way(s) you did to to making this moment in time possible for a little black boy from a third world country who used to read Black Panther comic issues totally out of order (because we never got them in story arc order down here) that he found in random drugstores and groceries (and Squizzums variety store, ValPark) back in the 70′s.

I’ll be here for Infinity War as long as I have life left in me, and then Black Panther 2 and 3 after that.

Today has been monumental for my family and I, and so I reflect and give thanks. 🙏🏾

I’ve written all this stuff down to really try and articulate my complex and deep feelings. But they all boil down to one simple sentence honestly. 👇🏾

THIS IS WHY REPRESENTATION MATTERS.