What Black Panther Taught Me About Protesting With Pride
Remembering Chadwick Boseman and the heart-shaped power of protest
We let the fear of discovery stop us from doing what is right
By now, most of us have seen Black Panther. A lot more of us have seen or will see the sequel Wakanda Forever. The movies are filled with quotes to inspire and motivate us to do our best and know we are worthy of being our best.
But it was on the hallowed grounds at a university campus that Chadwick Boseman proved the Black Panther wasn’t just a mask he put on for the movies.
“So you went to Howard University, huh?” the studio exec said, peeking over the pages of Chadwick Boseman’s resume.
“Yes,” Chadwick said proudly.
Many years before the MCU, this was his first lead role. The executives had invited him to share creative input about his character — a young man of color who went into the foster system after his father abandoned him and drugs took his mother.
So Chadwick asked: was there any explanation for a stereotypical character that didn’t rely on a stereotypical explanation?
His questions put the studio on guard. Asking for diverse representation was a kind of protest.
Soon after, they fired him.
It would be years later before Chadwick returned to the people who taught him whether it was worth it.
As the scripture says, “I planted the seed and Apollos watered it, but God kept it growing.”
With those hard days behind him but his final days drawing near, Chadwick Boseman returned to Howard University to speak to students facing a similarly harsh response to an honorable protest.
What he said surprised them all.
“You were wrong! All of you were wrong!”
Shortly before Boseman’s tragic passing, six university students at Howard University — Chadwick Boseman’s alma mater — stood up to the administration. In the wake of horrifying sexual assaults on campus, the six students demanded better responses from the university. The university fired those six students.
Chadwick Boseman, by then also known as the Black Panther, came to Howard University to deliver a commencement speech. He could have spoken only about inspiration, aspiration, and hope for a better future.
Instead, he talked about the protests. Instead, he declared which side he stood on.
History is written by the winners — but so is the future
Your organization and planning was impeccable. You received the majority of your demands, making a significant impact on those who came after you. As is often the case, those that follow most often enjoy the results of the progress you gained. You love the university enough to struggle with it.
Now, I have to ask you that you have to continue to do that even now that you received your demands. Even if you are walking today, you have to continue to do that. Everything that you fought for was not for yourself. It was for those that come after.
You could have been disgruntled and transferred, but you fought to be participants in making this institution the best that it can be.
We plant trees to give shade to the people who come after us
Students, your protests are also promising because many of you will leave Howard and enter systems and institutions that have a history of discrimination and marginalization. The fact that you have struggled with this university that you love is a sign that you can use your education to improve the world that you are entering…
When I dared to challenge the system that would relegate us to victims and stereotypes with no clear historical backgrounds, no hopes or talents, when I questioned that method of portrayal, a different path opened up for me, the path to my destiny.
Your legacy is not wrapped up in the money that you will make, but in the challenges that you choose to confront
Years after getting fired from his first lead acting role, Chadwick Boseman declared that Howard University taught him it was worth it. “I stand here today,” he said, “knowing that my Howard University education prepared me to play Jackie Robinson, James Brown, Thurgood Marshall, and T’Challa.”
But back when he was staring down at an empty bowl, an empty belly, and a hungry family, it was hard to keep his eye on the future.
But when you have those moments alone, you start to wonder if there was a better way to handle it. If you could have handled it better maybe you could help your family. Then before you know it, you are broke…
As conflicted as I was before I lost the job, as adamant as I was about the need to speak truth to power, I found myself even more conflicted afterwards…
But what do you do when the principle and the standards that were instilled in you here at Howard closed the doors in front of you?
Sometimes you need to get knocked down before you can really figure out what your fight is and how need to fight it.
Even Muhammad Ali got knocked down a few times
There’s at least one more treasure from Chadwick Boseman’s commencement speech to Howard University. While he would go on to simulate knockout brawls with legendary fighters like the Winter Soldier and Captain America, years before Boseman donned the claws of a panther, he donned the fists of a boxer.
And he did it to face Muhammad Ali.
It was a brief moment — Muhammad Ali was crossing the campus and just so happened to cross paths with student Chadwick Boseman — but one moment was all it took for the prize-winning boxer to challenge Chadwick to a public fight.
I remember walking across this yard on what seemed to be a random day, my head down lost in my own world of issues like many of you do daily. I’m almost at the center of the yard. I raised my head and Muhammad Ali was walking towards me. Time seemed to slow down as his eyes locked on mine and opened wide. He raised his fist to a quintessential guard.
I was game to play along with him, to act as if I was a worthy opponent. What an honor to be challenged by the goat, the greatest of all time for a brief moment.
His face was as serious as if I was Frazier in the Thrilla in Manila. His movements were flashes of a path greater than I can imagine. His security let the joke play along for a second before they ushered him away, and I walked away floating like a butterfly.
I walked away amused at him, amused at myself, amused at life for this moment that almost no one would ever believe. I walked away light and ready to take on the world.
The full commencement speech is below.
Chadwick Boseman Forever
In what looks like his last tweet on Twitter, Boseman shared a picture of himself with then-Senator (now Vice President) Kamala Harris. It turns out she graduated from Howard University, too.
Thank you for all you brought to us, Chadwick Boseman.
Your words and your example live on.
Wakanda forever!
