[BLOG] What Uncle Phil Truly Meant To Us.
I found this post on Tumblr about the passing of James Avery. What I noticed from the responses of his death is mostly everyone felt the same way when it came to Uncle Phil. I specifically came across a post that I felt was really heartfelt and it’s like “wow, this person gets it”. Uncle Phil wasn’t just a character on a show, he represented something deeper. Something I wish I can see more in media today. Read this below.
It’s more than just hitting me in the childhood.
It’s more than just a great actor has left us.
It’s more than “losing” a fictional character I liked.It’s like losing yet another father figure.
Uncle Phil reminded me of my own father a lot & seeing dads like him & Cliff Huxtable & countless other Black dads that were present (even if not conventionally through marriage or blood) in their kids’ lives. They were the antithesis to the message that “Black men abandon”. They were support to the Black women in these kids’ lives, they erased the idea that we needed a White savior to come riding in & fix everything b/c of their magnanimity.
Uncle Phil had three kids of his own, a successful career where he often had to balance the job of being a judge & being black, & he was self-made. He grew up in the struggles, fought to give his kids better, took in a wayward nephew who represented all the things he was supposed to shun in the name of respectability & loved him as if he were his own. No, scratch that. Just as they said in the show, Will was his son. He was a father who would have laid life & limb down for any of them.
& I knew many men like this. The norm in my life was not that “Black men leave”. It was that “Black men were fathers and supporters”. So I am grateful for & to the men who portrayed this, in life & on tv. That’s why it hurts, seeing men like my father, my uncles, & “Uncle Phil” pass.
We lost another one, we lost a good one.
That’s why it’s more of a damn shame. I do not see these characters like this on TV Uncle Phil always reminded me of my own father. Overprotective but a man who wanted the best for his family. Characters like that stay with you. Why else would everyone take his death to heart as if they lost someone in their own family? All I can say is we need more Uncle Phil’s.
This post came from the Tumblr account audio-sexual.tumblr.com check it out!
