Colorism is real, ladies and gentlemen. Whether you believe it or not is your own mindset, but when I say that we live in a world where little girls are getting teased for being a dark skin tone is sickening. And Hollywood isn't making that barrier any better by their casting "skills." It's the same reason why whenever we see a movie with a Hispanic lead, you already know that Sofia Vergara or Jennifer Lopez are going to play them. Because they "represent" that culture.
Now, when I heard that they were making a Nina Simone biopic of the late singer, I was overjoyed with happiness. Here you have a woman who fought day and night to get what she wanted. Whether that was to sing, make music, or march alongside political civil rights leaders and fight for our freedom. At that time period, we were still trapped and she helped us fight that.
Nina Simone was a very dark-skinned woman, with the big lips and nose alike. But she took that all in because she loved being a black woman and she loved her skin color. She knew that at the end of the day, the white man still came to her shows and she was able to put food on the table for her children. I just want you to understand that her skin color was very important to her, and that's one of the points that I'm trying to get at.
After seeing those first pictures of Zoe Saldana with the caked-on makeup and obviously prosthetic nose, I couldn't even take the pictures seriously. The first thoughts in my head were "why did they paint her so dark?" All the work that they had to do to make her look darker was such a waste of time.
I definitely do not think that Zoe Saldana isn't a talented actress, because she truly is. But they could've picked much better. Also, I'm not angry at Saldana for her position on taking the role -- but I think that even she should've known that something was definitely wrong with painting your skin three shades darker and putting on a fake nose with big lips. There is definitely something wrong here.
Nina Simone's brother has even recently commented on the upcoming movie, utterly disappointed in the choices that that the movie-makers made.
“Nina Simone . . . didn’t have a fake nose or fake lips. Everything about her was real. Why would you go with something made up like that?” Waymon said. “Blackface was used by Hollywood early on to dehumanize and to not have to cast [blacks] . . . I would have thought more highly of [Saldana] if she would’ve turned down the role.”
-- Sam Waymon, Essence Magazine, March 5, 2016
I have no more words for this issue, other than if you've seen the documentary "What Happened, Miss Simone?," it should not be a part of your agenda to see this movie. You've seen her struggle and how she practically gave up her career to help African Americans, yet we disrespect her legacy by painting on the darkest shade of Covergirl makeup that's available. We need to do so much better. We truly do.
