Stanford Graduate Student Council saved 100 Black Panther: Wakanda Forever tickets for Black students

The Stanford Graduate Student Council (GSC) saved the first 100 of 450 tickets for a Nov 10 screening of Black Panther: Wakanda Forever for black students, as reported by the Stanford Review, which criticized the GSC’s decision. 

In an email, GSC stated, “we have 450 tickets to give away and 100 of those tickets will be distributed beforehand via lottery among Black graduate students.”

Black students will be able to skip waiting in line for the first 100 tickets, The Stanford Review reported. “[H]ow exactly the GSC serves you depends on your race.”

[RELATED: Harvard created ‘exclusive space’ for ‘Black-identifying audience members’ by basing theater admissions on race]

The incident attracted attention on Twitter as students and alumni criticized the Review for the way it covered the story. 

One Stanford student with the Twitter username Nizhoni Begay said the Review is not a “real news source” and that “All Black students, children, relatives should see Wakanda Forever.” 

Mya M Vinnett, also a Stanford alum and journalist in the Los Angeles area, tweeted that “Comparing systemic, legislative racism to movie tickets was not the way to approach this.” 

The email from the GSC, aside from showing preferential treatment based on race, admonishes that the attendees at the showing of Black Panther “wear masks while not eating” at the theater. 

The university itself still “strongly recommends masking indoors,” according to its website, and still has a policy for faculty and staff to be required to have the COVID vaccination. 

As part of the Graduate Student Council’s wider initiatives for diversity, the council has several different “Grad Grow Learning Opportunities” on its website. This is complete with a section specifically addressing “Diversity and Inclusion” and offering different events to attend. 

[RELATED: Students demand universities provide Black student-only housing]

Some of the opportunities for this growth as a graduate student in diversity and inclusion include events such as “Weaving Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion into Education’’ with Dr. Emily Cooperdock on Dec. 7, as well as “Facilitated drop-in LGBTQ+ groups” on Dec. 1 of this year. 

When reaching out to the Stanford Review for comment they said they would be happy to but have not made any statements before the time of this publication. 

All other parties in the article have been contacted. The story will be updated accordingly.