Let’s be clear. I am not going to pretend that I was one of Chadwick Boseman’s biggest fans, because I haven’t watched most of his movies nor do I know much about his personal life.
Like most of his fans, I also associate Chadwick with Black Panther, someone who is strong and immensely powerful.
Today, after the news of his demise broke, everyone started talking about how he poured himself into the Marvel movies he did in the last 4 years while fighting the demon. Because it was today that we got to know he was diagnosed with colon cancer in 2016.
But if we look back, we’ll find that we as a society haven’t been kind and considerate enough.
Earlier in April this year, when Chadwick took to Instagram to interact with his fans to promote an initiative aimed at helping people of colour amid the pandemic, he looked slimmer than usual.
His slimmer frame instantly drew people’s attention and there were all kinds of media reports regarding his physique.
Agreed that fans did all this out of concern. But while commenting and speculating about all sorts of things, we did not realise that we crossed the boundary.
The boundary between personal and professional life.
The boundary between being kind and being intrusive.
The boundary between live and let live.
And we did not do it just once. Back in 2018, when Black Panther’s popular gesture, ‘Wakanda Forever’ was everywhere, a photo of Chadwick looking tired while doing the signature gesture during a press conference went viral.
We made a meme out of it.
While we thought he was tired, or angry and maybe disinterested in talking to the media, he had other issues to deal with.
Alive or not, we dig into everyone’s life and try to impose our expectations on them. Case in point: Sushant Singh Rajput’s untimely demise that has turned into a media circus.
From personal chats to medical prescriptions, everything is out there on social media.
For once, only for once, can we stop speculating? Because we DO NOT know what a person is going through.
Can we be kind to those are who not among us and kinder to those around? Because again we do not know anything about their life’s battles.
A celebrity or not, everyone deserves respect and privacy.
Everyone we meet is fighting a battle, mental or physical and we will never know what they feel. We do not need to.
Actually, someone doesn’t need to be going through something for us to not be humane.
Let’s choose empathy. Now more than ever.
Let’s be mindful of our actions on the internet.
Because kindness costs nothing at all. It only gives.