An Angel Unaware (Chadwick Boseman Tribute) By: Emmanuel Philor Sr.
Let mutual love continue. Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for by doing that some have entertained angels without knowing it.
An Angel Unaware
Mariah Carey, in her 1993 hit “Hero”, sent a message that we all can be heroes, to ourselves, even if not to others. The message of this song shone light to the idea that everyone can be a hero. But, what is a hero? Google dictionary defines a hero as a person who is admired or idealized for courage, outstanding achievements, or noble qualities. Based on the images that we’ve seen; Heroes are perceived as invincible beings that aren’t allowed to show weakness. Heroes are messengers of hope in seasons where life is hopeless. Being a hero is a role of bravery. But the hero sacrifices their well-being and safety for the sake of saving the lives of others. This sacrifice suggests that they find value in the lives and well-being of others, especially in response to things which put people's lives in danger.
Black people have always needed a hero. In every generation, God raises someone to be the hero for the people. In the past, we looked to heroes Sojourner Truth, Frederick Douglas, Harriet Tubman, Booker T. Washington, A. Philip Randolph, Martin Luther King Jr., Malcolm X, Rosa Parks, John Lewis, and Al Sharpton. I have come to realize that one of the hardest days to live, is the day when your hero dies. In the past few decades, situations have risen that spoke to our need of a hero. From Redlining to the Execution of Black People at the hands of the police, the black community has all but lost our hope. The weight of the world is on the shoulder of Black People and we often cannot find any sense of relief. Blacks, as a People, are robbed of their personhood daily and find us struggling to find stability in the places where everyone can simply “be”. We needed a hero! For some, this person is one of our parents. For others, it is a pastor or community leader. For many of us, that person was Chadwick Boseman. Chadwick Boseman was a man of humble beginnings in Anderson, South Carolina. Many of us know Chadwick for being a Heroic Black King, dressed in a Panther suit with ambitions to providing safety to the people he was called to cover.
Some would limit the work of Chadwick's heroism to his time as the Black Panther. Unfortunately, I would have to disagree. Chadwick was a hero to us long before that, although our vision was blurred until that world. In the movie 42, he displayed the hero by discussing the impact of the Jackie Robinson Story to a generation of people who may not have been familiar with him. In Get On Up, Chadwick displayed heroism by showing the value of James Brown's activism in his music. In Message from the King, he displayed our responsibility as black men to protect black women. In the Avengers Series, he displayed the capacity to go beyond our comfort for the sake of saving the lives of many. In Marshall, he exhibited the ability to influence change without being in the forefront. Chadwick was a hero on screen but based on the way people discuss his essence I wonder if we were in the company of an angel.
Angels are heaven-sent messengers who bring us the messages of God through the mediums in which they are called. The gift of Angels is that they are beautiful creatures whose work goes beyond our understanding and do not sway based on our comfort or lack of understanding. They are intentional. They don’t struggle with the issue of identity because they realize the value of the work required of them. In essence, the work that they must do on Earth does not always make sense to us. Chadwick was one of those individuals and he was comfortable with his identity. In interviews, he has discussed passing up roles due to them compromising his image. He was even fired from a role in ABC Network’s midday Soap Opera All My Children for speaking out about a role that bore some preconceptions. Nevertheless, Chadwick was a man of honor. In 2018, Chadwick received the MTV award for Best Hero as a result of his performance in Black Panther. In the acceptance speech, Chadwick gifted his award to a true American hero, James Shaw Jr. Chadwick honored Shaw for being brave enough to fight off a gunman at a Waffle House and protecting innocent people in the process. He displayed that a hero does not need to hoard the limelight but dares to lift and recognize others when the time is right.
During the 2018 Howard University Commencement Speech, Chadwick began his address with a story about an icon, legend, and hero. He is on Howard University’s campus as a student and sees Muhammad Ali off in the distance. When their eyes lock, Ali playfully lifts his hands to face off with Chadwick as an opponent. While Chadwick was not known at any point in his life as a fighter, Ali challenged the fighter in him. What Ali saw in Chadwick was the courage to the heaven-sent messenger who would change our lives forever. Ali was right to lift his hands to Chadwick, as Chadwick proved through his life to be a worthy opponent. In 2016, Chadwick would find himself in a heroic fight against cancer. I call this bout heroic because he never exposed his illness which meant he could not use it as an excuse to stop fulfilling his journey. I am sure Chadwick had aches and pain. But, during this bout, he never yielded to the illness. Instead, he kept fighting. His hometown of Anderson, his family, nor Howard University taught him to be an angel. They taught him to use the gifts to make a difference in the lives surrounding his. Chadwick made the conscious decision to carry out that mission and changing our lives in the process. Yet, we remained unaware.
Today, we mourn his loss but realize that there was truth to his words. In Black Panther, when everyone was mourning T’Challa’s death, he arose and shouted to Killmonger: "I never yielded! And as you can see, I am not dead!" During his four-year bout with cancer, he produced content that we will hold in our hearts forever. His legacy will live on through his work and his modeled heroism. His works have awakened the hero in all of us and shaped the way that we will see life. Little black boys and little black girls can believe in themselves; the world begins to see the good in people again, and we are awakened to the impact of what happens when we entertain An Angel Unaware!
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