Two educators from the Bronx have filed lawsuits against the New York City Department of Education, alleging they were wrongfully terminated and then reinstated at lower levels, each after refusing to make the “Wakanda Forever” salute at superintendent meetings. Rafaela Espinal, a Dominican-American woman, claims in court filings she was abruptly fired from her job as a head of Community School District 12 in the Bronx in August 2018 without any reason given. Karen Ames, a 30-year Department of Education employee, also claims she was fired without warning in August 2018 and notified the department was “moving in a new direction.” Both women say they were terminated as the culmination of a months-long campaign of gender, race, and age discrimination marked by a pattern of actions that included being “admonished” for refusing to participate in the cross-arm salute featured in the 2018 film “Black Panther.” At official gatherings of high-level Department of Education employees, then-Bronx superintendent Meisha Ross Porter asked the group to make the salute regularly.