The Beauty and The Specter: Michael B. Jordan and Ryan Coogler Above Convention

Powerful is a word that everyone understands, but is still a relative term. It’s a word that even if evoked about something you don’t feel particularly passionate about, you can still relate when that object is proclaimed as powerful to someone else. This picture, Black and White, Michael B. Jordan’s hand cupped around the back of Ryan Coogler’s head, is the most powerful picture I’ve seen this calendar year thus far. Even saying that is a privilege. The provocation of this photo does not stand up to violent images of a war torn Uganda where lifeless Black bodies decorate a land bereft of Western empathy. It pales to the importance of blood vials and clean rooms where they check toxin levels of Flint, Michigan’s citizens. But what it is, for me, is joy. And I allow myself such privilege where I can get it. My skin has long paid the cost for such. When this photo surfaced from Vanity Fair last week it was as part of a more non-descript portfolio. Style and trendsetters of course, as this is Vanity Fair. In the commentary, they make mention of Jordan and Coogler’s Blackness, but more in the footnote variety. Here is a rising actor, who happens to be Black; here art thou, the God of direction and tracking shots, may he be the right Black director for the right Black superhero. I don’t expect Vanity Fair to carry the weight of what they actually pulled from the river with this photo. I don’t expect a fashion magazine to do my coursework for me. Courtesy of Vanity Fair [divider ty…