In 2019, when a beloved franchise is trending on Twitter, it's often not for a good reason. With that in mind, it was a nice surprise to see that when something related to Black Panther began to trend this morning, it wasn't because of something scandalous. Only that the United States has ended its free trade agreement with Wakanda.The Sub-Saharan African nation, home to King T'Challa, better known as the Black Panther, is, of course, fictional. After debuting in Marvel Comics in1966, Wakanda finally made its way to the big screen in 2016, in Captain America: Civil War, and was the primary setting for last year's Academy Award-winning Black Panther.Wakanda was included on the U.S. Department of Agriculture's online tariff tracker with actual countries, reportedly as a part of a staff test, and was supposed to be immediately removed. Instead, the name was not taken down until after the error was pointed out on Twitter by Francis Tseng.
After the removal, Tseng had more to say:
Trade has been in the headlines a lot lately. In the United States, Congress is moving toward ratifying a trade deal with its North American neighbors, which is not to be confused with President Trump's touted trade deal with China. On the other side of the Atlantic, last week's general election in the United Kingdom made Brexit all but a certainty. That means the U.K. will have to negotiate its own trade deal with the European Union and other partners, leading to concerns regarding what those agreements may look like, and how they will effect the economy.
Of all of the times for a story like this to arise, right now is poetically convenient. The constant stream of news on the subject means that international trade, a topic most do not think about too often or completely understand, is at the forefront in people's minds. Most of the jokes from Twitter users have referenced tensions related to either U.S. or British trade negotiations.
Others allude to the other major ongoing American political story: impeachment.
The federal department responsible for the error has also joined in on the fun, including the Wakanda Forever salute from the film to indicate \there are no hard feelings between the United States and its former (but fictional) free trade partner.
Whether there is a trade agreement or not, it seems that Wakanda will remain an ally.
Unlike the U.S.-China trade war or Brexit, the breakdown of free trade between real-world America and fictional Wakanda has no actual consequences. That wasn't caused by convoluted geopolitical forces, but instead merely a bureaucratic error, making it an easy and safe target for everyone to laugh about. In a week full of divisive political news from around the world, and concerns over the state of international relations and trade deals, it's natural to want a break. The Wakanda story offers that.