chadwick

Chadwick Boseman played a superhero on the big screen, but he had a real-life superpower – the ability to inspire the next generation of underrepresented scientists, engineers and innovators. He was one of many people lost too soon in 2020, but his legacy will live on. I’m biracial – Black and white – but primarily identify as Black, in part because that’s how other people have always identified me. I’m also an engineer, scientist, educator, inventor and entrepreneur who has drawn great inspiration from Boseman. On and off the screen, he championed Black representation and embodied Black excellence. From the scientists of the fictional country of Wakanda to the supersuit he wore as the superhero Black Panther, the cinematic world he brought to life mirrors my own vision: a world of incre...

If you’re not a comics fan, you may have been surprised at the extent of the heartfelt grief expressed following the death of actor Chadwick Boseman. One explanation lies in the extraordinary power of the 2018 movie Black Panther, in which Boseman starred as T’Challa/Black Panther, to address racist stereotypes about Africa and Africans. Boseman’s character was heir to the hidden kingdom of Wakanda, a mythical African nation free of European colonisation. The film’s subtext explores African Americans’ varying identifications, past and present, with Africa and a global Black diaspora. Dark continent Westerners’ ideas about Africa are steeped in myth. The United States, wrote German philosopher Georg Hegel in 1830, was “the land of the future”. Africa, by contrast, was “the land of chi...

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A Black Engineer’s Take On Personal And Professional Inspiration – Chadwick Boseman’s Black Panther Gives A Boost To Diversity In STEM

Towards Wakanda – Chadwick Boseman’s passing and the power and limits of Afrofuturism