...Where do I begin. My mama told me time and time again, if you dont know your history, you are doomed to repeat it. Ms. Saldana, it has taken years to wipe off the black paint of American cinema. We as a race (you included) are still trying desperately to get it all off seeing it every now and again *cough gucci mane cough* but you my dear have volunteered, hand raised eagerly to put it back on...literally. Your justification of the backlash you've gotten for taking this role is drum roll please...reverse racism. "Why the fuck would I talk about black women's struggles when there is a black president?!"-Zoe Saldana. This statement alone ruffled a few feathers. Why you felt the need to express this in an interview is beyond me and even still...look around at the state of black people. Not to knock Barack (I don't need Obama trolls on my shit leaving rude and threatening comments!) But ummm....there were 400 murders this summer alone in Chicago, IL. Needless to say the majority of people killed were black youth, ages 18-25. If it really was all good for black women, the mother of Trayvon Martin would be able to say, "Yeah, they locked him up for murdering my son in cold blood." Lets save that for another post! Anywho...Darling, this is not reverse racism. These are facts that women are telling you. You must first acknowledge that there is some privilege that you received for being your complexion. This fact becomes especially true when Lisa Simone, Nina's daughter (a girl she gave birth to y'all) is a Broadway actress, tried to get involved in a movie about her mother and was completely ignored. Oh, I'm sorry Zoe, what were you saying about racism? Zoe, although colorism is real and exists on both ends (darker skin disliking lighter skin, lighter skin disliking darker skin, dark skin disliking dark skin) I'm going to go out on a limb and say this may not be the case. This case is a blatant whitewashing of history and you Zo, are taking an active role in eliminating the "Afro" in Afro Latina. Ms. Saldana, you are a phenomal actress and play amazing roles in many movies...but it seems that you (like the vast majority of us rocking Afro/African in front of our ethnicity, myself included) have been horrible mis-educated. It's clear, Ms. Zoe Saldana, that you don't/didn't know much about Nina Simone. You see, she, unlike yourself couldn't simply take off her nose, erase the darkness of her skin and ease the kink in her hair (for too long anyway). She lived everyday of her life that way...proudly. She persisted, noble and fierce in spite of the fact that some would have liked her better if she looked more like you...
