Maxine Waters made a perfect 'Black Panther' reference at Aretha Franklin's funeral
Aretha Franklin's Homegoing/funeral service was packed with famous people, musical performances, and (sometimes interminable) sermons, but one moment in particular caught Twitter's eye — Representative Maxine Waters giving the "Wakanda Forever" salute to the livestream camera.
A few hours into the service, Bishop Charles H. Ellis III noticed Rep. Waters in the crowd and called on her from the pulpit to let her know that he and everyone else in the room supports her, even encouraging others to "say it so everybody can hear you out there, ‘We got your back!'"
Rep. Waters, who has become an icon for her work in Congress and a focal point in the anti-Trump movement, acknowledged the attention by crossing her arms over her chest in a "Wakanda Forever" salute, tying Franklin's funeral and the spoken support of the black community to the cultural touchpoint of Marvel's Black Panther.
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The brief moment of solidarity (and comic book movie references) was one of many joyful moments in Franklin's Homegoing; hopefully Aretha herself got a kick out of it, smiling down from the Wakandan spirit realm.
Alexis Nedd is a senior entertainment reporter at Mashable. A self-named "fanthropologist," she's a fantasy, sci-fi, and superhero nerd with a penchant for pop cultural analysis. Her work has previously appeared in BuzzFeed, Cosmopolitan, Elle, and Esquire.
