Yet More Thoughts About My Nina Simone Post


Since weighing in about the controversial casting of Zoe Saldana, in the upcoming Nina Simone biopic, several blogs and media platforms have picked up on my blog piece regarding the matter and especially since my comments in Tanzina Vega's New York Times piece. There've been a couple of misconceptions, so I feel as if I need to offer some clarity as well as reiterate my stance on the matter...

First and most important, I actually was not the first person to broach this topic, as was suggested on one popular celebrity gossip blog. The Black independent film website, Shadow and Act was the first to present the information about the movie. The site's creator, Tambay A. Obenson initially made mention of the project in April, and he's been keeping tabs on the Nina Simone biopic since then, announcing and confirming in August that Zoe, was indeed, slated to play the title role. With that confirmation intact, I merely contributed my two cents, via a blog post, about the matter. I also did not circulate or start the petition to get Zoe Saldana removed from the project. In fact, a thorough read of my initial blog post, touches on the reasons why Zoe being cast as Nina Simone, are problematic. I never wrote that she wasn’t “Black enough”, I never mentioned her complexion, nor did I question her race. I said she didn’t share Nina’s phenotype. Nina Simone was a vigilant, unapologetic, mercurial, and amazing force, presented in a package that often isn’t preferred in the entertainment industry. 


For those folks who insist that this inaccurate depiction of Nina’s life isn't an example of erasure or industry light-washing of the Black female aesthetic, and suggest that people are simply taking spiteful, stan-like digs at Zoe Saldana, miss the point completely. This is a systemic problem that's been rampant in Hollywood, the film making industry, and the overall media for far too long.

Media and entertainment machines continuously force-feed images of the Black women they consider to be acceptable enough to present to the mainstream. And while I agree wholeheartedly with those points suggesting that Black film-making and media industries need to continue to work towards creating infrastructures that relay our own stories, and that Black audiences need to support those efforts in droves, Hollywood and the media in general still should be held accountable for the covert disdain they seem to harbor for the "Afrocentric" aesthetic, and these conversations still need to be had. 

Zoe's race or acting fortitude is not the core issue. Moreover, Black Americans are aware that the African Diaspora spans the spectrum and includes Afro-Latinos, but it still doesn't negate the fact that Zoe doesn't share Nina's phenotype, and neither did Mary J. Blige (who was originally tapped to play the role), for that matter. The look is equally as important as the contents of the script, because Colorism is an issue that Nina fought against.

Black actresses have a difficult enough time navigating the politics of the film industry, so when those who have darker-skin are pitted against bi-/multi-racial/racially ambiguous actresses who can "pass" for Black, to whom they lose plum roles, they continue to be cast in parts that relay narratives about Black female pathology: maids, the sassy invisible Black friend of some desired other actress, or the hyper-sexual ghetto queen as illustrated in the controversial Dutch film Alleen maar nette Mensen-- "Only Decent People" [adapted from writer Robert Vuijse's book]. 


Viola Davis spoke of the difficulties Black actresses face in Hollywood, during Newsweek's Oscar roundtable discussion, but was dismissed as not being secure in her "hotness", as Black women sharing their stories of invisibility often are. 

 

I've read arguments citing Thor and Hunger Games as examples of why Zoe cast as Nina Simone should suffice, since it somehow makes up for Idris Elba playing a Norse God. Nina wasn't some mythological character; she was a very REAL person who dealt with very REAL problems... racism and Colorism chief among them.
 

To lead stories and blog posts with "People Think Zoe Saldana Isn't Black Enough and want her fired!" derails from the crux of the matter, because essentially and once again, it’s not about Zoe, Zoe's  race, or her acting abilities; in fact, it isn't even about light-skinned Black women vs dark-skinned Black women... an angle I believe media platforms are trying to stoke the flames of, for traffic. It's about the attempted erasure of a subset of Black women in the media, doing right by NINA and her legacy, and explaining exactly why it was important to offer the right actress the opportunity to evoke her legacy. 

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2 comments

Nicthommi said...

So glad to see you bring this up b/c so many white people want to call this black on black racism, and yes, I've read one too many "tragic mulatto" stories about some light-skinned black girl who was the envy of all of the mean darkies too. In 2012.

Colorism is alive an well. Funny, I grew up as the only black girl in my class so for me, black was just black, and I didn't see the power of light skin privilege within a black community until college. And I honestly feel like I mostly saw black people who liked black people, so black folks were always paired off, and when I did see other black kids, I saw both light and dark skinned black girls who were considered to be the bees-knees.

At any rate, it's one of those things they won't get b/c they don't want to get it. They love to point out how we ALL call each other the n-word, how we ALL made fun of Gabby Douglas's hair. You know, all of that stuff that proves that black people cause racism b/c they hate themselves and are inherently petty and jealous.

I don't think she has the talent to pull it off, even if Nina's skin tone wasn't crucial to her story. B/c for example, Denzel Washington is loads darker than Malcolm X but a)he's a different caliber actor and b)I never got the impression that being light-skinned informed his experience given when and where he grew up (being half-white as I think his mom was didn't give her any privileges and his father was of course brutally lynched).

I mean, Zoe Saldana is a good example to me of how people SEE something other than what is there when a person is a certain skin tone b/c while she is Hollywood skinny she actually has full lips and a big nose, yet people keep saying she is so European looking, which is not true nor is it the reason that I find her casting so egregious.

TiffJ said...

"So glad to see you bring this up b/c so many white people want to call this black on black racism"...
"Colorism is alive an well."
"Zoe Saldana is a good example to me of how people SEE something other than what is there when a person is a certain skin tone..."


-- Colorism sure is alive and well... still. And it's a tenet of White supremacy. Privilege has prompted folks who're on the outside looking in, to gaslight and try to dictate to communities of color (especially women), how they should deal with that level of discrimination and their erasure.

It's easy for someone one who doesn't have any semblance of an idea, about the complexities of Colorism and Shadeism, to tell someone to "get over" their marginalization. I could care less about people chirping about this being an affront to Zoe Saldana and her race, particularly when I've already maintained that I never attacked her "Blackness" and acknowledged she was part of the Diaspora. And realize that she isn't even "light-skinned"... particular not by the standards of her own Latino community.

This issue isn't even *about* Zoe... at all... it's about Nina Simone's erasure and an industry's disdain for dark(er) skin and keener, more defined Afrocentric features.

Zoe is a brown-skinned Afro-latina actress, who has been miscast to portray a Black-American woman with *dark* skin and features that're more defined than the actress's picked to play her, because filmmakers have decided she'd be an *acceptable* vehicle to use, to garner favor with mainstream movie goers. This was a poor decision, because part of Nina's advocacy included *challenging* these linear ideas of Black beauty. On TOP of the miscasting, they've also chosen to develop a script filled with inaccuracies about a specific time period in Nina's life. Either tell the story and honor her legacy and do it right, or don't.

They wouldn't even *dream* of casting a non-White woman with darker than fair skin to play someone like... say... Marilyn Monroe. But Black women and fans of Nina Simone are somehow supposed to just "get over" this slight.

The constant derails I've read, from the core issues that've been raised, are ridiculous.