The Black Panther_ A Hero for Humanity

The Black Panther, Marvel Studios new blockbuster movie, is the story of a black superhero, written and directed by a black man, Ryan Coogler, with a largely black cast. The overt African lineage is significant and a worthy cultural touchstone. But what is more significant is that these folks have made a movie for all people. The Black Panther presents a vision of a hidden African land and culture, Wakanda, which harmonizes the spiral of human development — magic (magenta altitude), myth (amber altitude), hypermodernity (orange altitude) and world-centric political ideals (green altitude) — in a way that expresses a true integral sensibility. As Magnola Dargis writes in the New York Times: “Part of the movie’s pleasure and its ethos … is how it dispenses with familiar either/or divides, including the binary opposition that tends to shape our discourse on race. Life in Wakanda is at once urban and rural, futuristic and traditional, technological and mystical. Spaceships zoom over soaring buildings with thatc