These viral complaints were originally spurred by a tweet from Keshav Kant, who is the executive director and editor-in-chief of the nonprofit Off Colour, which covers the intersection of media, culture, politics and race. She wrote, “TikTok is having this discussion at the moment about content creators, access and Black women facing systematic barriers,” and asked “How many Black creatives (women and non-men specifically) were invited to the Wakanda Forever red carpet?”
Nyanyika Banda tweeted, “I created The Wakanda Cookbook. Re: I created the culinary landscape of Wakanda. No invite!” She is a chef and the author of Marvel’s Black Panther The Official Wakanda Cookbook, which released in April 2022.
Karama Horne, author of Black Panther: Protectors of Wakanda: A History and Training Manual of the Dora Milaje from the Marvel Universe and Marvel.com contributor, tweeted, “No, I was not invited to the premiere. Yes, I wrote a book about Wakanda for them.”
Shannon Miller, who is an editor at Adweek, weighed in one the conversation with, “It’s interesting: Every Black journalist/media person I’ve connected with on this has said that they A.) weren’t personally invited at all or B.) are the +1 of a non-Black guest.”
Roxane Gay, author of the Marvel comic book series Black Panther: World of Wakanda, made headlines in 2018 when she claimed that she wasn’t invited to the Black Panther premiere.
In a series of now-deleted tweets, Gay said, “My feelings are real hurt that I didn’t get an invite to the Black Panther premiere. I mean goddamn Marvel. Goddamn.” Like Gay, these aforementioned Black creators have been left with hurt feelings and confusion about their exclusion from this major event that is meant to celebrate Black culture.