The description of T'Challa's teenage sister Shuri in Black Panther as "the smartest person in the world" divided fan opinion this week on social media, with some applauding a young, black female character being elevated to such a position. However, others decried producer Nate Moore's assertion that the Wakandan princess is smarter than Tony Stark, and even went on to list such long-established Marvel Comics geniuses as Reed Richards, Bruce Banner and Hank McCoy. All are indeed part of Marvel's super-smart elite, and have been for a long time. They're also all white men, and that last point is really what those so strongly objecting to Shuri's snatching of the Marvel Cinematic Universe's IQ crown from Tony are missing.

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“As far as the technologically advanced side, in our mind, and in our incarnation, Shuri is the head of the Wakanda Design Group,” Moore explained of Shuri's role during a Black Panther set visit. “She’s the smartest person in the world, smarter than Tony Stark, but she’s a 16-year-old girl, which we thought was really interesting. Again, black faces in positions of power or positions of technological know-how, that’s a rarity. So it’s something that’s a big part of the film.”

There are plenty of strong, smart black women in superhero comics -- Storm, Spectrum, Amanda Waller and Misty Knight, for starters -- but super-intelligent ones who can rival the genre's heaviest intellectual hitters are few and far between. That isn't a problem exclusive to comics, though. When we think of a stereotypical genius in any medium -- comics, prose, television, film -- we tend to envision a white man. Upon further deliberation, we might conjure a white woman, or a black man. But a black woman? While superhero comics aren't solely to blame for that, it doesn't mean the industry can shirk the responsibility of tackling the problem, especially when the likes of Marvel and DC Comics wield such mighty cultural influence at the moment. In fact, Marvel has made a pointed effort to rectify that disproportion in recent years with the introduction of Riri Williams and Moon Girl, the latter of whom now holds the title of smartest person in the Marvel Comics universe; Letitia Wright's Shuri will ascend to that throne in the Marvel Cinematic Universe when Black Panther premieres next month.

Letitia Wright as Shuri in Marvel's Black Panther
Letitia Wright as Shuri in Marvel's Black Panther

Two young black women holding intellectual dominion over Marvel's comics and cinematic universe is a golden moment of positive synergy in pop culture. So, yes, it's disappointing that some fans feel the status quo of endless smart white male characters shouldn't be disrupted by the inclusion of even one black woman. In fact, the "should" comes across as more of a "can't." The big problem with that kind of negative reaction is that it speaks to a horribly offensive stereotype about the intelligence of black women. Tell people that a white male character is the smartest person in the world, and the chances are they'll accept your word for it -- because we've been culturally and socially trained to recognize that's what genius looks like, from Sherlock Holmes to Sheldon Cooper. In contrast, black female characters are expected to prove their intelligence. And even then, God forbid they be more intelligent than a white male counterpart like Tony Stark.

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It's a stigma that is sadly reflected in the real, everyday experiences of black women, from college students who find themselves in the minority for certain academic subjects to businesswomen not being taken seriously in the boardroom to former First Lady Michelle Obama -- a graduate of both Harvard Law School and Princeton -- being referred to as "Obama's baby mama" on cable news. Where the kind of technological innovation Shuri has masterminded is concerned, this stigma has also created huge hurdles for black women trying to break into STEM fields (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics), and there's crushingly disappointing data to back this up. Only 66 black women received physics PhDs in the United States between 1973 and 2012, according to the National Science Foundation. Between 1973 and 1994, the number was only 14. Black female PhDs in computer science totaled just 16 between 2002 and 2012, compared to 436 for white men. Across all STEM fields, black women received 684 degrees in 2012, which sounds respectable, until you compare that figure to the 6,777 for white women and the 8,487 for white men.

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For those unaware of this huge disparity in STEM fields, the 2017 biopic Hidden Figures must have been pretty eye-opening. But, the truth is that the uphill struggle those women faced because of their race and gender hasn't been left behind in the era of the Space Race. Negative stereotypes and assumptions about the intelligence of black women not only limits the wider perception of what they can achieve but what black women believe that they can achieve themselves.

The existence of Riri Williams, Moon Girl and Shuri doesn't squeeze out the preexisting white, male geniuses of the Marvel Universe; it's not as if there are a finite number of IQ points to go around. Blindly rejecting the super-intelligence of fictional characters like Shuri won't lessen her importance, either: Her real superpower is what she inspires in young black girls who will go to see Black Panther this month.


Arriving in theaters Feb. 16, director Ryan Coogler’s Black Panther stars Chadwick Boseman, Michael B. Jordan, Lupita Nyong’o, Danai Guira, Letitia Wright, Daniel Kaluuya, Winston Duke, Martin Freeman, Forest Whitaker, Andy Serkis, and Angela Bassett.