I have been hearing a lot about representation in Hollywood and the entertainment industry, as an actress this struck something within me, because I can identify with the struggles people of color face as performers. We need equal representation throughout every outlet not jus the entertainment industry but everywhere, People ay ask why it is important to us, or why we push it so hard. We live in a world that held people of color down so long that once we got a leg up we celebrated with every ounce of our being. We have been oppressed by this country for so long, we have been pushed under the terrain. We have been told that we cannot do things because of the melanin in our skin, not because we don't have the abilities or talent but because our skin is not fair enough. That's it, it's a color war, in a country that claims to see no color, color is the divider on a one way street.
When we talk about representation in the entertainment industry, we don't mean casting a "token black girl" in the name of diversity. Do not use us for immunity, we are not here for you to prove to everyone that you're not racist. We are not satisfied with the roles we are getting, stop asking us to play slaves and maids, thugs, and loud ghetto people, drug dealers, or your token person of color. We are not satisfied with it. Just because you have a black man as a lead or supporting role but he's a drug dealer does not mean we are making progress, it means that all you see us as is a stereotype. Now lets dive into that conundrum.
BLACK PEOPLE ARE NOT STEREOTYPES! People have created this image of what it looks like to be a black or hispanic person. We are not what you think. We live our lives in a way that makes you uncomfortable, therefore you identify it as a stereotype. You create an image of a group of people that will make you feel better about yourself. Let me tell you now, if a group of people make you so uncomfortable just by being themselves, there's a great chance your racist. All we do is be ourselves, live our lives, enjoying and sharing our culture, which you find uncomfortable. So not only did you create the stereotype, you put us in a box and made assumptions about our character. Every black woman is not angry, bitter, and loud, stop trying to say we are. Every black boy or young man is not a thug, or drug dealer. Every hispanic person is not an immigrant, or rapist.
WE ARE INTELLIGENT.
It's sad that white people get surprised when they see people of color doing things they wouldn't "normally" do like graduating college, getting a PhD. Let me remind you that black women are the most educated women in the country. Yet, to a white man we're nothing but a black ghetto girl. Even when we show you who we really are, you take our culture and twist it into something inhumane because, once again, you are uncomfortable with it. What is ghetto to you, is tradition, and culture to us. It is our black heritage, when we are proud of who we are that's when you start to get scared, when we start to love and support one another, when we start to build our own communities and no longer look at the white man for freedom, you isolate us because you can no longer contain us in the box. We're free but when we really start being free y'all get scared.
TAKE US OUT OF YOUR BOX, JUST LET US BE.
Back to representation, being born and growing up in the 90's I was blessed to see people on television, and in film that looked like me. I grew up watching shows like: Sister, Sister, Smart Guy, Fresh Prince, The Cosby Show, Martin, A Different World, Living Single, Moesha, The Parkers. Listening to artist like: Lauryn Hill, The Fugees, Jill Scott, Erika Badu, Sade, Stevie wonder, Tupac, Motown, Michael Jackson, All the Jacksons. Seeing films like Sister Act, Space Jam, Bad Boys, Wild Wild West, Coming to America, Poetic Justice. People like Will Smith, Whoopi Goldberg, Phylicia Rashad, Debbie Allen, Bill Cosby, Martin Lawrence, Eddie Murphy, Tia and Tamera, Raven, Jada Pickett, Queen Latifah, Lisa Bonet, Lenny Kravitz, Seeing Brandy as the first black Cinderella, Whitney Houston, Courtney B. Vance. Just to name a few. I started acting because I love the craft, but I started pursuing it because the people before me made it possible, the people before me struggled to get to where they are so the path would be a bit less bumpy for me. I am blessed to have been born in an era where I was represented in my craft, where black people were allowed to tell stories, not just the stories of slaves, and civil rights activists. But we told all kinds of stories. Stories where are doctor and a lawyer raised a family in Brooklyn Heights. A black family lived in Belair. A Prince coming to America for the first time. Love stories, comedies, real life stories, musicals like The Wiz. We saw black kids going to college, respecting their parents, and elders. Black men were;t feared as much as they are now, black women were portrayed as classy women, who carried themselves with respect. We were not forced to suppress our culture and heritage because someone was uncomfortable with it. Somewhere along the line that changed. Maybe we were starting to bask in that freedom of blackness a little too much, maybe the white community lost control, maybe we were getting "ahead of ourselves" in their eyes. We were too intelligent, too talented, too resourceful to our own people. We didn't limit ourselves to a black audience, we were gaining success everywhere. Somewhere along the line someone decided that our culture was ghetto, that all we are are thugs, and drug addicts, someone decided to put a limit on our success. Someone decided that being black meant to struggle. Yes we have struggled, and that has a part in defining what it means to be black, but that is not all it is. we were not always slaves. We are some of the first inventors, innovators, professionals, we were able to build something out of nothing. e educated ourselves when an entire country decided that we weren't worthy enough to even know how to spell our own name. We have marks all over this planet. We built kingdoms, communities, and empires. They stopped teaching us our history in school, and now they tell children that slaves were immigrants who wanted to work for free.
They put a box over our talents and abilities, and picked us out when they needed a splash of diversity. Black men and women's hair became unprofessional, we had to out on a mask to get a job, we had to "act white" in order to get a simple desk job. The funny thing about it all is that, when we are professional, we are accused of trying to be white. We wear our natural hair it's ghetto, we straighten it, we'r trying to be white. When we speak a certain way, we're called ore's. BELIEVE IT OR NOT, EBONICS IS NOT A BLACK LANGUAGE. SPEAKING PROPER GRAMMAR AND INTELLIGENTLY DOES NOT MEAN ONE IS TRYING TO ACT WHITE! It means that we know how to speak.
Black people have become the national symbol for making a statement. What I mean by that is, a white director will cast a black person in order to make a statement. They will receive questions like, "What statement were you trying to make when casting a black actor to play this role?" the actor will receive questions like, "How was it, as a black man or woman playing this role?" WE ARE NOT HERE FOR YOU TO USE US TO MAKE A STATEMENT! People say that there are no roles for black people, what does that mean? You're telling me that a black woman couldn't be the lead in La la Land, or Bridesmaids, A black man could not play opposite Sandra Bullock in the Proposal? No what they're really saying is, these are roles that go outside the box of black actors, therefore they cannot play them. Everyone claims to have an open mind, but not everyone has an open mind. Why is everyone shocked that Taraji P. Henson could pull off a role like Kathryn Johnson. You claim to be open minded but when Michael B Jordan is cast to play Torch, Hollywood goes up in flames. We claim to be open minded but why is Whoopi Goldberg to only black woman to have an EGOT. Why is Viola Davis the only black woman to be nominated for 3 Oscars, but Meryl Streep has been nominated twenty times. Why are we hearing first black anything in 2017. Yet you claim that we are making progress. don't throw us a dry bone to try to shut us up.
We need representation for our young black boys and girls, for the generations coming up after us. We have entered an era where once again we are claiming our culture, we are dwelling in our roots. We no longer view ourselves as just descendants of slaves, no WE COME FROM KINGS AND QUEENS AND WE WILL ACT AS SUCH. We will conduct ourselves as royalty. We will live and enjoy our lives unapologetically. We are claiming who we are, from the biggest star in the business, to the littlest boy on the playground. Many people view our claims as just popular hashtags and sayings but that is not so, there's so much more, we believe it. We believe that our lives matter. We love seeing black boys in a joyous light, and black girls embrace who they are. We view ourselves in opposition to the stereotypes. Society knows who we are, but if they admit it, they are admitting that we are equal to them.
WE ARE UNAPOLOGETICALLY BLACK, we will no longer hide who we are. We will not let your stereotypes define us. We will not apologize for who we are. we're here and there's nothing you can do about it. We are black and beautiful and we are equal to every other man or woman out there, believe it or not. When we raise our fist we are declaring who we are and we will not be moved. We love our melanin, our black is beautiful we can't get enough of our natural hair. We are intelligent. We have broken the stereotypes, destroyed the boxes you put us in, we are free and we CANNOT BE TAMED.
