Stacker Pentecost
Superstar
DEAD ASS read someone who considered Mariah Carey black say that Zoe Saldana was too light skinned with European features to play Uhura
Its like having a Spanish last name throws people off from what their eyes are seeing
A whole lot of willful ignorance in this thread. Y'all gotta be trolling to be deliberately missing the point this hard
Uhura is a FICTIONAL fukkING CHARACTER, Nina Simone was a real person whose Black womanhood was a major part of her life, music, and activism. Zoe did actually resemble the original actress that played Uhura, both of them are Black women with features on the smaller end of the spectrum (thinner lips/straighter nose, etc) which means they fit into a Eurocentric standard of beauty despite being brown-skinned. See also: Iman, who was told she was beautiful because she looked like a "white woman dipped in chocolate:" Iman Recalls Being Offended By Former Essence Editor
Nina Simone did NOT have those type of features, she had a broad nose and big lips, and it's very obvious when you do the side by side comparison of Zoe and Nina that Zoe was miscast.
They darkened her skin with makeup and put a prosthetic nose on her rather than just hire an actual darker skinned, broad nosed actress, people are allowed to have a problem with that. And Zoe is no GREAT actress here, if they believed in her acting talent that much they wouldn't have even attempted to make those physical alterations. Considering Nina's life work and activism revolved around her treatment due to her physical features, it IS important to get that aspect right in her life story. Casting Zoe, a familiar face (even slathered in makeup with a fake nose, we still know that's Zoe), moves Nina's Blackness and her activism into a place where it is more palatable for white consumers.
We continue to erase darker skinned Black people with dishonest portrayals that subconsciously send the message Blackness is only acceptable the closer it gets to Eurocentric standards of beauty.
Casting Zoe (a Black woman who still benefits from smaller, Eurocentric features like a straight nose and thinner lips) makes Nina’s Blackness - and by default, her activism - more palatable for consumption. It makes Nina’s fight more palatable and digestible to the white audience. It prevents them from being made uncomfortable by seeing actual dark skin, wide noses, and kinky hair onscreen– instead, we’re shown makeup, prosthetics, and a wig. Zoe is the face of Nina and, to a lesser extent, Black Activism, from the White Gaze: mass produced, palatable, and processed.
And it’s not about saying Zoe is not Black enough to play Nina, but about the fact that dark-skinned actresses are seen as TOO BLACK, and do not fit into a Eurocentric standard of beauty- even for the portrayal of an artist and activist whose life’s work was based on her dark-skinned Black womanhood.
Y'all gotta stop with the nonsense.
A black woman playing another black woman is not the same as white people playing characters of completely different race
. Mongrels doing damage control is funny as hell, I just wish more pure blacks realized you guys are parasites and not beneficial.