On Chadwick Boseman

 

To have died of Cancer is a terrible loss. It is a tragedy at any age- an illness that comes into being from your body doing what it needs to survive. To die of cancer at 43 is even worse, and to be diagnosed with late stage cancer in your thirties is unimaginable.

Chadwick Boseman is a superhero, he is the Black Panther, Wakanda Forever; he showed a generation of children they can. With everything the black community is facing right now, this feels like a much bigger kick in the teeth.

I was a huge marvel fan in my teens and I’m well acquainted with my intestines.  

Colon cancer, and the risks of colon cancer, is something I am acutely more aware of than the average 21-year-old girl, because I spent a year bleeding profusely with my bowel movements and had a great number of camera tests in just a few months. And thankfully, because now that I have a diagnosis of a bowel condition, and I’ll have regular monitoring for the rest of my life, if I ever develop the signs of colon cancer, we should be able to catch it. But for many people, bowel symptoms go unspoken about, mainly because we do not feel comfortable talking about what goes on when we go to the toilet. It took me a couple of months before I went to the doctor with my bleeding, even though I knew something was very wrong. In Scotland, regular bowel screenings are sent out from the age of 50, and around half a million people complete them, however this year they’re still paused due to Coronavirus. Bowel cancer is the third most diagnosed cancer in Scotland.

The risks of colon cancer are much higher for the black and mixed population- especially if there has been familial history of the condition, a genetic condition, or Crohn’s or Colitis. There could be many reasons for this, I’m not a doctor: the socioeconomic disadvantages meaning that there is health inequalities resulting in black and mixed populations being diagnosed with cancer when it is ‘too late’, or by medical teams who are extremely limited in the treatment options, genuine risk factors in genetic build, family history and the like, a mixture of both. A person’s death is not the place to speculate on an already recognised statistic and health inequalities. If you have been putting off phoning the GP about some strange bowel symptoms you’ve noticed recently, especially if you’re black or mixed, please give them a call.

To think that Chadwick did some of his biggest roles, most obviously his marvel films, while living with his disability, undergoing surgery and chemotherapy, is maddening to me, as someone who has just taken a year out of my education with my illness. I cannot imagine how intensive his workload must have been, and how he must have felt after a long day of filming. I am even more touched by the photos that have surfaced of him visiting with younger children in hospital, and how genuinely upset he was in one interview when discussing a young fan with cancer. He truly did not show the world this side of his life, he gave the public all of his energy. I absolutely admire his friends and family, his close-knit circle who have respected his wishes and ensured that this news wasn’t broken by drama channels, his privacy was clearly incredibly important to him, especially given that with recent weight loss pictures, people were assuming he had been on cocaine.

Another aspect of discourse that is emerging is that as a black male, Chadwick may not have felt that he could have spoken about his illness because he would lose out on roles. This was brought to my attention by @BlackDisability on twitter. Disability inequalities are made so much worse when considering them on an intersectional scale, and so it isn’t hard to see that the inequalities faced by black and brown disabled folks are a lot worse, be that culturally, with access to healthcare, etc. [There is an incredible range of healthcare myths surrounding black people, including that black women have higher pain tolerance, and also just that most doctors can’t recognise rashes etc on dark skin because they present differently.] This is also something to think about, although I cannot add to the discussion.

What I do hope, is that this helps highlight again that disabilities are often invisible. How many people will you walk past living with a struggle you have no idea about? You have no idea who is on chemotherapy. Who has just had surgery. However, I think this does need to be done sensitively. It doesn’t mean that if Chadwick can do it, anybody can: what this man has managed to pull off is truly astounding. Everyone is an individual, even with the same type of cancer. As I said before, people had been joking that they thought he had been taking drugs. They also thought he could have been preparing for a new role. How about we just.. don’t comment on people’s dramatic weight loss. Kindness and compassion, an awareness of how we treat others, even in our jokes. 

We’ve lost an icon, there’s no doubt about that. But perhaps there’s a number of things we can learn from the loss. Awareness of colon cancer. Black healthcare inequalities. Maybe most important: please, be open with your doctor about your bowels. My thoughts are with Chadwick's loved ones at this time.

I have included here a section of his powerful speech to the students at Howard University, his alma mater, in 2018. At this time, they had recently protested policies relating to housing and campus policing, and he was two years into his diagnosis. You can read the whole speech transcript here, I thoroughly recommend it, although the full Youtube video is about 35 minutes long! 

“Purpose crosses disciplines. Purpose is an essential element of you. It is the reason you are on the planet at this particular time in history. Your very existence is wrapped up in the things you are here to fulfil. Whatever you choose for a career path, remember the struggles along the way are only meant to shape you for your purpose. 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.

When God has something for you, it doesn’t matter who stands against it. God will move someone that’s holding you back away from the door and put someone there who will open it for you if it’s meant for you. I don’t know what your future is, but if you are willing to take the harder way, the more complicated one, the one with more failures at first than successes, the one that has ultimately proven to have more meaning, more victory, more glory, then you will not regret it.”