When we've run out of things to offend us, we start digging and scrounging to find something—anything—even remotely controversial. Leave it to a publication like The New York Times to find controversy in kids dressing up as superheroes. In this particular case, white kids dressing up as Black Panther:
Black Panther costumes—whether the character's full raiment or just his claws and mask—are on toy store shelves (and, of course, on Amazon) in anticipation of the film's Feb. 16 release. At best, the character get-ups speak to the enthusiastic embrace of a black superhero. At worst, they could be perceived as an unwitting form of cultural appropriation, which has in recent years become a subject of freighted discourse.Exactly how a white kid could be guilty of "cultural appropriation" by dressing up as a fictional comic book character created by two white guys is beyond me, but apparently this is a serious discussion parents are supposed to be having with their kids.
