Why is being BLACK just not good enough in Hollywood?
For all of us here at Divulge Magazine there exist a number of un-said rules when it comes to entertainment. We don’t laugh joyously at the death of innocence; we wouldn’t spoof something that people struggled with (when they are still suffering from it and the ignorance of others, i.e: the ones doing the spoofing); and for fu*%s sake we aim to be aware of culture appropriation.
If you haven’t heard there’s a new biopic about the late and great Nina Simone, starring American actress Zoe Saldana as the movies lead character. Which means in 2016 we get to the opportunity to watch a film that breaks all the un-said rules we just mentioned all at once. All during a sensitive time in the black community, freshly coming out of conversations involving “culture misappropriation” and the term “micro-aggression's”, the odd case of Rachel Doazel, the trending Twitter hash-tag “#OscarsSoWhite” and the extremely controversial 2016 movie titled Gods of Egypt, that depicts European actors as the Gods of an African Kingdom. The Nina Simone biopic has supports a Latina actress wearing Nina Simone’s likeness (predominantly black features) as a costume, and we’re all uncomfortable for so many reasons.
Nina Simone was a singer who embraced her blackness with every fiber of her being, quoted for saying “black people are the most beautiful creatures inside and out”. To take on this role appropriately one should be able to embrace her sentiments. However the Dominican-American actress, Zoe Saldana, as reportedly dodged questions in regards to embracing her blackness until she was recently casted to play Simone. Distancing oneself away from the black community is common in Dominican culture, a culture that promotes the ideas of color-ism, and highlights the privileges of those whose skin is of a lighter complexion. Despite living on the same island, those who are of darker skin complexion are often referred to as Hattians, and those with lighter complexions are more likely to be accepted when claiming Dominican citizenship. From the Parsley Massacre in 1937 that saw the death of thousands of those accused of being Haitian living in the country, to the year 2015 threat of deportation for those born in the Dominican Republic but with Haitian descent. One reporter captured the sentiments of the international law violation through a young boy identifying his Dominican born comrade as Haitian based on his darker skin complexion. Many fear that such evidently influenced thinking will not allow Zoe Saldana to give Nina’s persona her Justice.
To add insult to injury, the promotion of the film follows the controversy of the 2016 Oscars-So-White trend where many boycotted the prestigious event due to the nominees being exclusively white actors. Host of the 2016 Oscars and actor Chris Rock said, “We want black actors to get the same opportunities as white actors… Not just once. Leo (Dicaprio) gets a great part every year and you know everybody, all you guys, get great parts all the time.” WELL said Chris, yet here we have an opportunity for the entertainment industry to find a talented black actress with an authentic likeness to Nina Simone and they decide to give this opportunity to Zoe Saldana, an actress who in the past has distance herself from her black identity, a move that utilizes color-ism to mask racism in the industry. Many in the black community are hoping the film will be done away with in like manor to the controversial film, “The Interview” or find the lack of financial success as the controversial film “Gods of Egypt”.
At Divulge magazine we’ve addressed the topic of “Micro-aggression's” in the past. As stated by its Wikipedia article, “Psychologist Derald Wing Sue defines micro aggression's as brief, everyday exchanges that send denigrating messages to certain individuals because of their group membership. Sue states that micro-aggression's are generally happening below the level of awareness of well-intentioned members of the dominant culture according to Sue, are different from overt, deliberate acts of bigotry, such as the use of racist epithets, because the people perpetrating micro-aggression's often intend no offense and are unaware they are causing harm.”
The casting of Zoe Saldana is a rather obvious micro-aggression. Even if Zoe Saldana does a wonderful job at portraying Nina Simone, what will future generations get from it? If a young black girl falls in love with Nina Simone’s character and thus Saldana’s portrayal, and looks further into Saldana as a person, one can imagine the embarrassment of once believing Saldana truly relating to their pains, yet discovering that Saldana wore their own “likeness and pains” as a cheap costume. As noted by Nina Simone’s only daughter, that her mother “was raised at a time when she was told her nose was too wide” and her skin was “too dark”.
Facebook user and die-hard fan of Nina Simone Jasmine-Janae Joseph had this to say about the biopic:
“How can someone with the ideologies about race and identity as Saldana has even feel comfortable lip syncing the lyrics to the songs Nina sung that were all about Blackness and pride? And now that this movie coming out, Zoe decides to back track on some Hillary Clinton shit talking about how proud she is of her Black roots. We peep you girl. You're not allowed to be Black when it's profitable and lit. Nina didn't have the option of choosing when she can be Black and identify with her Blackness. Nina couldn't wipe off her Blackness and slither back into the comfort of being racially ambiguous. Nina couldn't take off her nose. This is like a bad joke to me. Like this casting lets me know that if they could, they would have a white actress portray her in Blackface. Might as well have.” (sic)
