Like Black Panther, kids can save the world
Spoiler alert: This column discusses a plot point in the movie “Black Panther.” Do yourself a favor and see it already!
At the end of the blockbuster movie “Black Panther,” Wakandan king T’Challa announces that he’s bought the condemned building in Oakland where his uncle — and the father of his defeated rival, Killmonger — was murdered in the 1990s.
T’Challa’s plan, which he announces as young African American children shoot hoops around him, is to turn the building into a tech training hub for the community.
I’ll confess that this was the point at which I fully embraced T’Challa as a superhero.
It was one thing for him to vanquish dozens of warriors, to arise from neardeath, and to take vision quests to “the ancestral plane.”
It was an entirely different thing for him to transform affordable housing in Oakland into a technology co-working space with international capital, and to make people cheer for the cause.
And T’Challa did it with no rezoning fight, environmental review, or neighborhood battle at the planning commission! That’s quite a hat trick, I thought when I saw the movie.
Oakland native Ryan Coogler made a story so engaging, and a movie experience so immersive, that even a Bay Area audience was cheering for our ultimate super-villain — the tech bro who parachutes into a city with money to burn, pushy demands for someone else’s space, and lots of promises about how his technology is going to change the world. Then it came true. On Feb. 26, Disney announced a $1 million donation to fund the expansion of STEM centers in Oakland and 11 other cities all over the country.
“It is thrilling to see how inspired young audiences were by the spectacular technology in the film, so it’s fitting that we show our appreciation by helping advance STEM programs for youth, especially in underserved areas of the country,” Robert Iger, chairman and CEO of Walt Disney Co., said in a statement.
Inspiration, STEM, youth — yeah, yeah, yeah.
I’ve been living in the Bay Area for long enough to know what that pile-up of marketing phrases usually means.
To get assurance that the company’s “spectacular appreciation” wouldn’t result in the displacement of the young people living in those underserved areas, I called our local grant recipients.
Cal Stanley, president of the Boys and Girls Club of Oakland, swiftly assured me that the final plot point of “Black Panther” would look different in real life.
“One million dollars is a good amount, but when you divide it among 12 cities, it’s about $83,000,” said Stanley. “Here, at least, we’re probably not going to be able to build a new center. But we’ll be able to renew an existing one.”
The Boys and Girls Club already operates STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math) programs in its three centers in the East Oakland, West Oakland and Allendale neighborhoods.
At the three Oakland clubs, about 2,000 kids, ages 6 to 17, can use computers in the labs to do their homework and research for school projects.
They can participate in the Boys and Girls Club’s youth robotics programs and their science clubs, which are operated in partnership with institutions including the Chabot Space and Science Center.
Disney’s support will be an opportunity to strengthen what the clubs are already doing, Stanley said.
“We’re super excited. It’s a shot in the arm for us.” Stanley said. “Technology renews itself every two years or so, and we haven’t been able to renew some of the equipment in these centers for many more years than that.”
But one thing Disney’s support will not be used for is shopping for an old Oakland building currently filled with belowmarket-rate housing.
“Our purpose is to prepare our young students with enough STEM knowledge to go to the local research universities — Berkeley, for example,” Stanley said. “We don’t want them to have to go anywhere if they don’t want to.” Whew. With my real estate concerns out of the way, I asked Stanley what his members had thought of the movie. (Thanks to local donations, the Boys and Girls Club of Oakland has taken about 75 of them to watch “Black Panther.”) “They loved it,” Stanley said. Many of the young members have expressed a new interest in cartoons and digital animation.
Hopefully, Ryan Coogler is paying attention. At some point, he’ll need interns for “Black Panther 2.” When he does, these Oakland kids can do a lot more than play hoops.
“It’s we show fitting our that appreciation by helping advance STEM programs for youth.” Robert Iger, Disney CEO