ZOE SALDANA AND LIGHT FRAGILITY

If you didn't believe that light skinned actresses with white features were/are enjoying preferential hiring practices before, despite multiple decades worth of proof, all you have to do is look to Zoe Saldana being hired to play Nina Simone.

Saldana's skin color and white features, however, are less than half the problem. Considering Zoe Saldana's colorblind, colorism blind, racism blind attitudes choosing this nitwit to play Nina Simone is akin to choosing Donald Trump to don blackface so he can play Martin Luther King. *

“As one light-skinned black woman to another: We need to check our privilege.”

Feeling Rebloggy

Being light-skinned isn’t a problem and it is not something that we ever have to apologize for, just as white people don’t have to apologize for being born white.

I’ve never been looking for white people to apologize for being white. I’m looking for white people to dismantle the system of White Supremacy that builds them up on the backs of people of color. 

And dark-skinned black people aren’t looking for us to apologize for having light skin, they are looking for us to help dismantle the system that places us above darker-skinned black people in society.

The same system that holds us above and separate from our darker-skinned brothers and sisters is the same system that holds whiteness above and separate from us. And we are a part of this system the moment that we benefit from it. And we do benefit. As a light-skinned black woman, I’m viewed as more desirable, more intelligent, less threatening. I’m treated better by bosses, I have better odds in job interviews. People don’t cross the street when they encounter me on the sidewalk. Yes, there is a large price to pay for all of that—I am fetishized by many in the white community [and black community, both and then] ostracized by many in the black community—but when placed on a scale, I benefit...

Read More: Nina Simone, Zoe Saldana, and Light-Skinned Fragilityhttp://www.theestablishment.co/2016/03/03/nina-simone-zoe-saldana-and-light-skinned-fragility/


Zoe Saldana as Nina Simone?
Not Even Half the Problem
Follow us: @EbonyMag on Twitter | EbonyMag on Facebook
http://www.ebony.com/entertainment-culture/zoe-saldana-as-nina-simone