Sixty Years As An Advocate and 'Real Life Super Helper'

I'm still 'Cap Black' to this day. Though I consider myself a distant first cousin to the 'real life superhero' community despite supporting the concept.;

Nadra Enzi ——Bio and Archives--March 24, 2026

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Standing up for myself has been a staple from that moment forward

Advocacy is my longest running occupation. It has been since a female kindergarten or first grade teacher angrily glared at me when I entered the classroom holding my late mother's hand. Standing up for myself has been a staple from that moment forward.

A brief highlight reel of my life:

I don't remember the April 4th, 1968 assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Nor that of Robert F. Kennedy (June 5th, 1968). I do remember seeing their images, along with that of assassinated President John F. Kennedy, in a group portrait hung in many Black homes, including that of my maternal great-grandmother.

I remember watching the July 20th, 1969 moon-walk of Apollo 11 astronaut Neil Armstrong while the other two kids played in a living room. We were taken care of by a neighbor while our folks were at work. My interest in space remains to this day. As does science fiction. I grew up watching Star Trek, UFO, Land of the Lost, the Six Million Dollar Man, Battlestar Galactica, Space Ghost , the Herculoids, Electra Woman and Dyna Girl, Wonder Woman, Isis, Shazam, Battle of the Planets, Spectre Man, Ultra Man, Star Wars, Star Trek motion pictures, the Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the Eighth Dimension, Big Trouble In Little China and 'B' movies galore. Toss in tons of comic books, newsletters, fan fiction and magazines, including the 'sci-fi' industry standard, Starlog Magazine, which debuted in August 1976. And Fangoria, its horror fiction counterpart. I was also one of few Black boys to read Survivalist Magazine and Soldier of Fortune. Or attend a Rick Springfield concert at the old civic center.

My late maternal grandfather and I were watching television when the October 6th, 1973 'Yom Kippur War' started. I dutifully reported it to my late maternal grandmother, a social science teacher. I have fond memories of our discussions about history and current events.

World War Two and Vietnam were two topics with plenty of airtime in my youth. So did the Watergate scandal and subsequent resignation of President Nixon on August 9th, 1974. I thought President Ford was a good chief executive whose occasional falls comedian Chevy Chase made famous on Saturday Night Live. What wasn't funny were the assassination attempts Ford survived on September 5th and September 22nd, both in 1975.

President Carter was a fellow Georgian whose presidency set the stage for the most active tenure as a former president in US history. The 444 day 'Iranian Hostage Crisis' and tragic April 24th, 1980 attempt to free US embassy hostages in Tehran overshadowed his legacy for decades.

The attempted assassination of President Reagan on March 30th, 1981 had me witness a young White grocery store bagger say he hoped Reagan died. I didn't agree with that sentiment though I differed with the administration on key policy issues. I also felt would-be assassin John Hinkley should have been kept in a secure psychiatric facility for the rest of his life. I didn't welcome his September 10th, 2016 release from care.

The image of US Secret Service agent Tim McCarthy intentionally running into the line of fire to shield President Reagan with his body is likely the most heroic act I've witnessed on camera.

I recall C-130 military transport planes droning overnight from Hunter Army Airfield as US Army Rangers stationed there flew to the island nation of Grenada (October 25th, 1983) for 'Operation Urgent Fury'. It prompted particularly heated debate between an Army brat and Libyan student in my high school 'SEARCH Program' class.

The rest of the eighties saw me graduate from high school and enter college a year later. It was a historically Black college and university (HBCU) whose historic mission matched my idealism. I saw even prettier girls than those in high school, won a homecoming essay contest (made my late mother cry over the phone when I called her), experienced the Model United Nations and Model Arab League, attended campus parties and made lifelong friends. While I didn't fit in with the styles back then, on balance it was a good experience. I was also there with future NFL Hall of Fame inductee and commentator Shannon Sharpe. I got to witness his gift of gab inside the Student Center long before he went viral on network TV and online.

The nineties and early 2000s found me trying to find my way as a freelance writer and evolving 'safety creator' navigating a crack cocaine invaded Black community. 'Gen X' drug dealers or 'dope boys' as they were called steadily eroded community safety and stability. It's something for which I can never forgive them.

September 11th, 2001 found me in a downtown post office wondering why a radio was loudly playing in its normally quiet lobby. A stunned clerk informed me 'they', meaning terrorists, had attacked the New York World Trade Center. It collapsed soon afterwards. The Pentagon was also struck by a hijacked airliner and United Flight 93 crashed after heroic passengers stormed hijackers in its cockpit. This was actually the second NY World Trade Center terror attack. The first was on February, 26th, 1993, where a parked van bomb detonated beneath it.

What followed was the 'GWOT' or 'Global War On Terror', the controversial Patriot Act and more controversial March 20th, 2003 invasion of Iraq, codenamed 'Operation Desert Storm'. The fact it had nothing to do with the attacks on America two years previous was lost on President George W. Bush, as were most things.

I've harbored an impractical desire to be a superhero ever since boyhood

My mother died suddenly in 2004. A year later, I was able to sponsor the Model United Nations team from my college (that I didn't graduate from) to attend the Harvard World Model United Nations Competition in Edinburgh, Scotland. 'Ma', as I called her, was my sponsor when I participated. Posthumously, she sponsored another generation of student-delegates. They distinguished themselves there.

I've harbored an impractical desire to be a superhero ever since boyhood. I never thought it possible so secretly applied the theme to civil rights activism, the security industry and even bounty hunting bail bond fugitives. Still, the desire persisted. Imagine my surprise in 2008 upon stumbling across the 'real life superhero' or RLSH community. After researching them on the early internet, I came up with an assumed name, 'Cap Black', that same year. It was attached to my writing, civil rights and safety advocacy.

I'm still 'Cap Black' to this day. Though I consider myself a distant first cousin to the 'real life superhero' community despite supporting the concept. I regularly communicate with several of them. Most recently I've taken to calling folks like me 'real life super helpers' or 'real lifers' who take an often less colorful approach to being superhero-inspired activists. I do however, have a cape worn on special occasions. Like RLSH, we perform homeless outreach, citizens patrols such as my 'Borrow A Brother' volunteer safety escorts and other ways to help on shoestring, sometimes no shoestring, budgets.

That ends a very condensed version of an upcoming sixty years as an advocate and 'real life super helper'.

Nadra Enzi aka Cap Black does 'Borrow A Brother' volunteer safety escorts for female friends and worthy causes.

EVENT AND EVERYDAY PEOPLE PROTECTOR. ADVOCATE.

Nadra Enzi AKA Cap Black is a philosophical protector specializing in security management beside event organizers and owners of establishments serving the general public. (Substack)

Cap Black is a contributor to Canada Free Press, a security writer on touchy topics; security advisor/founder of Borrow A Brother volunteer safety escorts for female friends concerned about carjackings robbery and sexual assault. $realbrocap on Cash App

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