Wakanda Forever makes $300 million at the Box Office, but their Black team members STILL can't catch a break
The Black Panther sequel, Wakanda Forever continues to break records, surpassing $300million at the Box office and counting, in less than a month. A film that celebrates people of colour of South American and African descent wins again. Nothing sends a stronger message than voting for equality with how we spend our money 💸
At the same time, we've still got a long way to go. Earlier this year, prior to the release of the film, the director, Ryan Coogler faced racial profiling at a bank. Racism in banking is still very, VERY real, as explained by New York Times.
Why does this matter?
The first Black Panther film has made $1.4billion to date — it's a HUGE success and the director, Ryan Coogler, has skyrocketed to global recognition within the film world. While it's shocking to see this successful director experience racial profiling, the truth is — his job and his success shouldn't even matter.
Black and Brown people shouldn't have to be world-famous and exceptional in order to be trusted and awarded basic respect. The same thing happened to self-made billionaire Oprah Winfrey, when she was blocked from buying a designer bag, as the sales assistant deemed it was 'too expensive' for her. This week, Black Panther lead, Letitia Wright was targeted by the Hollywood Reporter, in an article that resurfaced rumours she had long debunked months ago, and grouped her with abusers in Hollywood.
For every inequality that a high-profile Black person experiences in the media, there are thousands - if not millions - of everyday Black people who are experiencing the same thing, or worse, without money and fame to fall back on. This systemic, societal bias is something we should ALL work to change. It impacts the economy, as Black and Brown people are excluded from making key financial decisions, even though they have the money, and our collective psyche (it's impossible to do your best work at the hands of racism — this phenomenon is called 'weathering').
That's why we're passionate about making the world more equal for EVERYONE. It may seem like a lofty goal, and it definitely is a process, but it is worth pursuing. Worth working towards. Worth investing in. Read more about our mission and work here.
Future-proof your workforce with Hustle Crew
Would you like to improve your diversity and training programmes within your company?
Do you want to raise cultural awareness and understanding across all communities in your company?
Would you like to retain your top underrepresented talent by supporting them with the best resources?
Welcome to Hustle Crew.
Since 2016, we’ve been providing. Since 2016, we’ve been helping companies like Sky, Stella McCartney and more to become more diverse, through our Recommended Programme — which includes ‘Fostering Inclusion’ and ‘Understanding Bias’ workshops. Navigating conversations about diversity can be challenging, but driving long-lasting change in your company is possible.
Get in contact here.