partially through the fictions in our cultural repertoire. Therein, I suggest, lies an injustice of an epistemic nature.
“We Must Right These Wrongs”
Just as epistemic resources help us to better interpret the world, the absence of certain resources can lead to poor interpretation or misunderstanding of aspects of the world. Importantly, Black Panther was released to a cultural climate in which the representation of Blackness in fiction was severely restricted, and largely remains so, as Anthony Mackie noted. Where Black Panther improves our epistemic resources, minimal and stereotypical Black representation worsens them, and as such perpetuates the social and structural oppression of Black people and communities.
When racism and sexism lead to poor or scant epistemic resources suited to interpreting the world, what Miranda Fricker calls an “epistemic injustice” is committed.19 This kind of injustice targets those subject to it in their capacity as knowers along the same lines as social identity prejudices, such as racism, sexism, ableism, and so on.20 Marginalized knowers who are victims of epistemic injustice find it difficult to be believed when they should be, or to make their experiences salient to others through language and culture.21 As I've described, one way to make experiences salient to others is to produce fictions like Black Panther, which represent experiences and offer the epistemic resources to allow knowers to correctly interpret experience. The historic lack of adequate resources for interpreting and understanding Black culture, possibilities, and experience, leads to these aspects of living as a Black person in the world becoming obscured or poorly understood by other people. Moreover, because the resources available to understand Black lives are largely stereotypical or derivative, so too is much subsequent understanding of Black culture and experience.
The right kind of fiction can help alleviate this sort of epistemic injustice by providing better epistemic resources for interpreting the world and allowing marginalized individuals to articulate their experiences through the fiction, for others to understand. Black Panther in this sense is a case of epistemic justice. It provides plentiful and rare representation, which was produced by a majority Black creative team. It uses the fictional medium of film to contribute to our epistemic resources and improve collective understanding of Black people's experience and possibilities. While all the work to alleviate the epistemic injustice done to Black and African American populations is certainly not complete, Black Panther and fictions like it are part of the remedy. One can only imagine, given all that's transpired in the real world since Black Panther's release, what elements the Black Panther sequel will incorporate with regard to real and fictional knowledge. Will it continue to seek epistemic justice? Will it a show a world (not just the Wakandan nation) where Black lives matter? Will we see the effects of Shuri's and Nakia's outreach efforts? And how will the sequel deal with Chadwick Boseman's/T'Challa's death? Indeed, this returns us to the paradox of fiction. We know Chadwick is gone and we know his depiction of T'Challa is too. Yet the Black Panther, whoever it ends up being, must live on, especially in our imaginations.
For pop culture resources and philosophical resources related to this chapter please visit the website for this book: https://introducingphilosophythroughpopculture.com.
Notes
1 1 Bell, B.A. (2020). Actors on Actors: Anthony Mackie & Daveed Diggs (Full Conversation). Variety. https://variety.com/video/actors‐on‐actors‐anthony‐mackie‐daveed‐diggs‐full‐conversation#! (June 28, 2020).
2 2 Pohlhaus Jr., G. (2012). Relational knowing and epistemic injustice: toward a theory of willful hermeneutical ignorance. Hypatia 27: 716 .
3 3 Pohlhaus (2012), 716.
4 4 Pohlhaus (2012), 718.
5 5 Pohlhaus (2012), 718.
6 6 Gaile Pohlhaus Jr . (2017). Varieties of epistemic injustice. In: The Routledge Handbook of Epistemic Injustice (eds. I.J. Kidd, J. Medina, and G. Pohlhaus Jr. ), 16. New York: Routledge .
7 7 Walton, K. (1990). Mimesis as Make‐Believe . Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press .
8 8 Mackenzie, C. (2000). Imagining oneself otherwise. In: Relational Autonomy: Feminist Perspectives on Autonomy, Agency, and the Social Self (eds. C. Mackenzie and N. Stoljar ), 132. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
9 9 Mackenzie, 126.
10 10 Mackenzie, 126.
11 11 Mackenzie, 126.
12 12 Mackenzie, 133.
13 13 Thompson‐Hernández, W. (2018). Black Panther’ Cosplayers: “We're Helping People See Us as Heroes”. New York Times. (https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/15/style/black‐panther‐movie‐cosplay.html (February 15, 2018).
14 14 Thrasher, S. (2018). There Is Much to Celebrate – and Much to Question – About Marvel's Black Panther . Esquire. (https://www.esquire.com/entertainment/movies/a18241993/black‐panther‐review‐politics‐killmonger (February 20, 2018).
15 15 Thrasher.
16 16 Thrasher.
17 17 Thrasher.
18 18 Hooks, B. (1995). Killing Rage: Ending Racism , 14. New York: Henry Holt and Company.).
19 19 Fricker, M. (2007). Epistemic Injustice: Power and the Ethics of Knowing , 1. New York: Oxford University Press.
20 20 Fricker, 4.
21 21 Fricker, 155.
Part III
Metaphysics
