I remember Eddie Murphy making a joke sometime in the 80s that White people in America, when talking to him about Black people, would say, “We don’t mean you. You’re not really black.” They said the same thing about Sidney Poitier. But the more African Americans they saw in mainstream movies the more people realised they could not keep dismissing talented African Americans as exceptions, that any Black person, not only the ones that stood out the most, had the potential to achieve great things, and that African Americans were not a monolith. Individuals like Lupita, Chiwetel, Idris and Chimamanda may, for now, be perceived by Americans and Europeans as unusual and “exceptional” Africans, but that will pass. American obsession For us, the spotlight on these global stars is a nice distraction from our politics and problems, or the problems caused by our politics, and it will also take some getting used to. I had a conversation with a friend who was uncomfortable with the media’s fixation with Lupita. She felt Lupita was being ogled for her ‘exoticness’ and that she was willingly allowing herself to be Hollywood’s dark-skinned mannequin. That the attention was in reality some sort of obsession masking America’s discomfort with race, and an overcompensation for what Lupita symbolised with her role in 12 Years A Slave. I say, let them be obsessed, so that an image that is so familiar to us becomes less unfamiliar to them. Let them learn to pronounce our names and enjoy our beauty. And let us enjoy the celebration because they came late to the party. They are just confirming what we’ve known all along – we’re pretty damn cool.
Posted on: Fri, 21 Mar 2014 15:37:23 +0000
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