#blackerface

Now there’s a few issues going on with the film Nina and what I’m going to discuss here is the casting of Zoe Saldana. 

Linked below is an article written by a close from of Nina Simone, who tells a story about Nina envisioning who might play her in a film about her life. her choice? Grace Kelly. 

http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-edinburgh-east-fife-36116954

And in his version of this story, even he laughed at the obvious difference in races between the two women. But she explained it was not about race, but rather a matter of spirit. She felt Grace Kelly encapsulated the women she saw herself as and for that reason thought Kelly would be a perfect choice.

Now, back to my point about forgetting to respect the individuals. 

People seem to be a range of uncomfortable to outraged by this casting saying it is unfair to cast a “light-skinned” women to play a dark-skinned person of color. People called it white washing, saying even in a movie based on the life of a proud dark-skinned woman of color, we are not, as an audience, comfortable with a dark-skinned actress.

This seems a little unfair to Zoe Saldana, a woman, who is infact African-American. And in the all-inclusive, love yourself world we live in today and attempt to foster, it seems simply cruel and ironic to tell Ms. Saldana that she is not “black enough” to play this role. Who are we to tell her about her identity or tell her what roles she may or may not have the right to identify with.

I’ve been seeing a recurring issue popping up recently about the simplification of the identities of Afro-Latinxs. This concept that they may be African American or they may be Latinx, but in the eyes of society, they may never be both and this seems to be exactly what we’re putting on Saldana.