I donβt want to be divisive but I just need to say it: if youβre not black, I donβt think you can truly understand what this feels like.
You can empathize, and god I thank all of you for doing so, but you donβt feel it.
Not in the way every little black kidβs eyes lit up when they realized people who looked like them had a story to show about bordeline ethereal lands that showed them they came from somewhere beautiful, not just from a fucking boat.
Not in the way so many boys and even grown men felt pride swell in their chest at seeing themselves on screen as a powerful king, as a superhero.
Not in the way black girls and women everywhere felt encouraged to wear their hair out the way it grows from their scalp or shaved or threaded or any way they want toβ and boys too!
Not in the way every single product of the diaspora, not just in the United States, saw themselves as something better, bigger, than what weβve been reduced to over the course of history.
Black Panther came when we needed it the most, and Chadwick Boseman did so fucking much in the times before, during, and after the movie came out. He didnβt get dismiss it as βanother superhero movieβ. He didnβt βput upβ with kids wanting to meet their hero, or older people wanting to express their gratitude because βwhen I was younger, I never thought Iβd see someone that looks like me doing thatβ. He was key in us being able to feel good about ourselves across the board.
Chadick Boseman isnβt a character, and it would be horrendous to reduce him to such, but we canβt ignore the impact of his presence.
Iβve been crying since I woke up at 3AM to 24 texts telling me about the news in some way or another. I went to bed at 9PM last night, an hour before the news broke. I havenβt slept since then, and I donβt think Iβll be able to at any point today, because, yβall. I just canβt stop feeling.
