What Chadwick Boseman’s death means in a year marked by grief – By Joshua Barajas (Canvas) / Sept 9 2020
A boy freezes as a TV reporter delivers the news that someone important to him has died. Wearing his “Black Panther” costume, the boy drops his action figure of King T’Challa.
“Daddy! Daddy! My h-hero is gone!” he cries in his father’s arms.
The boy is the center of a comic by artist Courtney Lovett, who at first didn’t believe the news that actor Chadwick Boseman had died. After seeing the late-night alerts on social media, she went to bed thinking it could have been a dream. But the next morning, the headlines hadn’t budged. Lovett said she doesn’t normally get emotional after a celebrity’s death. But this was no normal year.
The overlapping crises of 2020 have been acutely felt by Black people in the U.S. The novel coronavirus has worsened pre-existing disparities, both in health and financial security, and claimed a disproportionate number of Black lives. Police violence against Black people has not let up, touching off outpourings of anguish and months of nationwide protests.
“Every Black person I know is exhausted just from life right now.”
Continue to article: https://www.pbs.org/newshour/arts/what-chadwick-bosemans-death-means-in-a-year-marked-by-grief
