Empathy – Chadwick Boseman Peers Regrets

This is going to be a little different from the normal leadership blog you’re accustomed to reading at Constant Leaders.  The passing of Chadwick Boseman left many people around the world devastated.  Including his family, friends, peers and fans, myself included.  He was most well-known for his role as King T’Challa, the Black Panther of Wakanda in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.  Chadwick was a true leader who walked amongst us.

After learning of his illness, Chadwick did not let that effect his outlook on life.  He fought hard against the cancer and believe wholeheartedly that he would beat it.  Over the past four years battling cancer, Chadwick continued to take many challenging movie roles.  But not concern with just fame and wealth, he took roles which shed light to racial and social injustice. 

Even his most iconic role as the Black Panther, there was so much awareness to the Black community which Chadwick was directly involved in bringing to the big screen.  The most captivating thing I learned about Black Panther occurred at the ending scene, when Black Panther kills his cousin, Killmonger.  The line Killmonger was supposed to say was “Bury me here in the land of my ancestor”.  But instead of saying that line, Chadwick came up with a much more meaningful line which actually made it into the final cut.  Killmonger last words were “Bury me in the ocean with my ancestors who jumped from the ships, because they knew death was better than bondage”.  Yes, that line was actually inspired by Chadwick.

Throughout the time Chadwick battled his illness he remained private and did not share with anyone outside his close nit family circle that he was sick.  Not his friends, his co-actors, movie producers nor movie directors.  No one knew.  But those who were privy to the information took every opportunity to stay close with Chadwick.  During movie shoots, Chadwick’s wife would regularly be found by his side. 

In April of 2020, Chadwick posted a video of himself promoting his new movie 42 and Jackie Robinson Day.  In the video, it shows clearly that Chadwick had lost a lot of weight.  But since he was so private about his illness, the public started discussing rumors on the cause.  Some were just making mean and ignorant comments about Chadwick’s weight.  

Bad rumors and mean spirited comments not only came from the public who did not know Chadwick, but it also came from his peers.  In an interview that can be seen here https://youtu.be/hDvWb1ESZss, one of Chadwick co-actors, Clark Peters shares his regrets.  He observed Chadwick always having his wife around the movie set.  He saw that Chadwick always has many people around caring for him personally.  Without knowing why, Clark made comments that Chadwick was high maintenance and that he had let the fame get to him. 

After the passing of Chadwick Boseman, Clark was distraught.  Clark was devastated to find out that Boseman has not let fame get to him.  Chadwick was spending his final days with his loved ones.  Clark regretted saying those things and having those feelings.  Like Clark, those in the public who made those terrible comments are now hoping they can take back what they’d said.

That’s the thing with empathy when you don’t practice it.  If you don’t give empathy to others, you may just regret over one of the biggest mistakes of your lives.  When we see people around us out of character, we should seek to empathize.  Instead of making assumptions and jumping to negative conclusions, we should attempt to find out why.  If they are not forthcoming and want to stay private, like did Chadwick, we should still give them the benefit of doubt. 

Work is hard.  Relationships are hard.  Life is hard.  There will be many points in our lives where we will face difficult challenges which affects us deeply.  It will alter us mentally, emotionally and even physically.  Regardless if we chose to share our hardship or not, we would absolutely appreciate anyone who shows us empathy.  So be aware and show empathy to others who may need it the most.

Rest In Peace Chadwick Boseman, King T’Challa!!!!