Ava DuVernay Presents The 25 Women Directors Who Have Helmed QUEEN SUGAR

"Here are the 25 women directors who have helmed QUEEN SUGAR over our past three seasons. For 21 of them, it was their first episode of television. 

They’ve since gone on to direct for many other shows:

• American Crime. 

• Underground. 

• Scandal. 

• Grey’s Anatomy. 

• Power. 

• Ozark. 

• Transparent. 

• 13 Reasons Why. 

• Insecure. 

• Luke Cage. 

• Greenleaf. 

• Dear White People. 

• Black Lightening. 

• Love Is. 

• Agents of SHIELD. 

• Survivors Remorse. 

• Star. 

• Chicago Med. 

• The Fosters. 

• Claws. 

• The Chi. 

The list goes on.

These women just needed a first YES.

To my fellow Executive Producers, to the studio execs, to the network decision makers, as you staff up for fall, consider saying: YES"

~Ava DuVernay

(facebook post)

The black female images we're seeing on television and in the movies is the result of black women pulling other black women up.

The result has been that other groups see our stories as worth telling. HIDDEN FIGURES might not have gotten made if shows like Scandal hadn't proven a show with a black female lead couldn't capture and hold an audience for years -- maybe if Shonda Rhimes hadn't taken over an entire night of television on ABC for a few years.



Ava DuVernay, Shonda Rhimes and Mara Brock Akil have all put black women in front of the camera and behind the camera. They are giving black female life to Hollywood. 

We as black women are the sheroes we've been waiting for. 

And we are putting positive black female images on television and in the movies that black girls will be able to value and emulate and dream about from now on.



QUEEN SUGAR is on Oprah Winfey's OWN on Wednesday Nights This Summer

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KARDASHIANS, JENNERS, DOLEZALS AND THE NATURAL END GAME FOR BLACK FISHING

For the longest time, I really couldn't figure out why I should pay attention to what the female Kardashians and female Jenners were doing at all, despite my being able to clearly see what they're doing as far as mimicking black women's features.

But I've changed my mind because their disease is kinda catching on as cool in the white community.

White women becoming famous for having black features without in the white dominated music industry and Hollywood admitting that is indeed what's happening is not new. There have been a bunch of white women praised for the decades for having full lips -- like black woman's.  

Actress from
Two Broke Girls

Some white girl even got quasi-famous by singing about bringing booty back  -- as if the booty or "being thick" ever went out of style in the black community.

But the whole Kardashian /Jenner thing ratcheted the game of black features on white women up quite a bit...before black fishing (a white woman putting on black make up to look like a black person) was even a named thing. The Kardashians browning themselves and changing their features to be more like black women started out as a display for men, the physical display being about what it's always about:  

Women who can attract the most men or the richest men win. 

I'm guessing that this was a natural progression for the female Kardashians/Jenners because rumor has it they weren't accepted as white by white boys but they could be worshiped by black boys --not just accepted-- as something akin to "bi racial" or "mixed race"

And once they were adults and had surgery, they figured out --as many pale but not-white women have-- that they could have diamonds and money poured over them by the black men who really want white women and someone with white-looks but at the same time don't want to be identified as sell-outs by a sizable portion of black folks who really don't like interracial dating.

For example:

• Kanye said him and his friends like "mutts" (mixed race) years before he married a  Kardashian. In comparison, Jay Z was probably really was looking for a light-skinned black woman to call his own, just like he said in his song(s). 
• But I suspect that if Bill Cosby had been born twenty years later, he probably wouldn't have married Camille but a real white woman or a latina or Asian woman if he wanted to maintain a black audience support base.

But the Kardashian /Jenner path to getting black men to worship them as pale, not-quite-white goddesses is important. And they did more than just "get a tan" as some claim. And calling what they've done "cultural appropriation" doesn't quite cover it for me. The Kardashians and Jenners are have done a kind of light-blackface via tanning and make up, then also went out and bought themselves fuller lips and big asses. 

They are putting on whole black woman costumes as if in a 24/7 minstrel show, becoming black women in everything except depth of skin tone. So, maybe we should call what they, and now Ariana Grande, are doing as "brown face"

blackfishing
read more: teen vogue

The big problem I have with all this is that it is spreading. 

A few white women have done the same sort of thing, painted themselves, styled themselves into being something other than white -- on instagram and rumor has it, in at least one magazine.

So as a black woman I have to ask myself, how long before 

black fishing,
complete w headwrap

**make-up-painted to look black or brown** white women actually replace real black and brown women in half, most, or all magazines, television shows, and movies? 

And what's worse is this: Most of these painted white women wind up looking like bi-racial black women, which pours gas on interracial colorism in the white community and intraracial colorism in the black community. 

Rachel Dolezaling Into Black Womanhood Matters no matter who is doing it, where, and why.  

Understand that Rachel Dolezal actually making claims to be a different race makes her situation different from the Kardashians and Jenners. But it's not that different. Dolezal decided to be another race, to be a black woman, because it was profitable for her to do so. She parlayed being a black woman into an entire career.

Ariana Grande, as another example, wasn't quite making it as a white chick in the music industry. She was famous among the kiddie / tween set only. But when she began looking distinctly Puerto Rican she had hit after hit after hit on the pop charts. I think she had a good three or four big hits before I realized that I WAS NOT supporting a woman of color by buying her music. 

Now, I buy white women's music all the time; I am a dedicated Adele fan. But when I'm on the fence about actually buying a song, trying to decide if I really like it that much, whether the singer is a woman of color or not is a major factor. 

Black and brown people are heavily under represented in some critical spaces in the music industry and in Hollywood. And .01% of these singers and actresses may eventually move up, move behind the scenes to be music executives, real power brokers --who will decide who the future stars will be.

These future power brokers may decide black and brown women should be 20% of the pop music scene instead of 0.5% (?) like now. These future black and brown, female, music industry bosses will be able to support black and brown women who sing as well or better than Adele --whether or not she is built like a damn near curve-less model too

...like Shonda Rhimes, Mara Brock Akil, Ava DuVernay, Viola Davis, and Danai Gurira have done for black women in movies, television and Broadway. 

These future black and brown women with power will also be more likely to decide they'd rather go under than support and protect somebody like R. Kelly. 

Race matters.

Even so, I don't know if we can do anything at all about the Kardashians and Jenners fishing for black men in brown face (pun intended). And, I don't know if we can do anything about the Ariana Grande's passing as Puerto Rican until after they've made it (conscious decision or not). I'm not even sure I should be able to do something about a white woman's make-up choices... even if there are not corresponding surgeries, headwraps, and style choices meant to enable them to wear another race's culture like a costume.

But I do know these discussions are worth having.

In some cases we can come together and raise our voices to remove a Rachel Dolezal from leading a NAACP chapter as a black woman instead of a white woman like she should have. And we did. We can also decide to not spend money on Ariana Grande music if we feel she's deliberately using brown face to get cool points with her white audience and acceptance from a black and brown audience at the same time.

Anybody suspected of mocking, mimicking, or culturally appropriating black or brown womanhood is worth watching because some percentage of them are going to wind up being worth a boycott.  
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By the way, as black and brown women, we are the only ones who get decide when, where, and why we defend ourselves our black and brown female images. Anybody who thinks otherwise can go kick rocks.

LENA WAITHE TELLS THE TRUTH AND SAMES THE DEVIL FOR BLACK WOMEN WRITERS

Feeling Rebloggy

Lena Waithe [Netflix "Master Of None" Writer] and a host of Black women writers in Hollywood gathered to discuss the work they do in supporting each other in an industry that's not built for their success. The numbers of Black women in television writing are so low you can't find statistics. In an op-ed article for The Guardian, Stefani Robinson (an Emmy-nominated writer for her work on "Atlanta"), lamented that only 4.8% of TV writers are Black.  The problem is systemic. She wrote:

Black showrunners are hiring black writers, sure. But what about white showrunners (the majority of showrunners)? Why aren’t they hiring minorities to write on their shows? I don’t know. Something that I hear a lot from white writers is that they like to “write what they know”. In my experience, this also means “I’m white so I only know and want to write white things. I don’t want to write about minorities because I won’t do them justice...

~FOR HARRIET 

https://theculture.forharriet.com/2018/12/lena-waithe-brings-together-black-women.html?

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Viola Davis stars in WIDOWS

THIS VIOLA DAVIS MOVIE LOOKS AWESOME! 

VIOLA is starring in it

STEVE McQUEEN  is directing
(12 YEARS A SLAVE),

GILLIAN FLYNN helped to write this crime thriller
(GONE GIRL AUTHOR) 

This movie can't lose 

and

It's coming to a theater near you 
this November

TRAILER


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QUEEN SUGAR: THE MORE FEMALE THE BERRY THE BLACKER THE JUICE

A REPOST:  

QUEEN SUGAR IS BACK FOR SEASON 3

 ON MAY 29th and MAY 30th

OUR SETTING: A Black Family Owned Farm 

In Saint Josephine, Louisiana

NOVA

The first time we see the ultra dark-skinned, sexually fluid Nova Bordelon she is waking up sexy to a MeShell Ndegeochello track, "NO ONE IS FAITHFUL."

My daddy made no excuse

I believe my lies are truth

Why won't you eat what you are fed

All we in the beginning is a black body, languidly stretching. The scene expands and we see the body is a black woman, looking back over her shoulder with a slight smile. Then we find out that it was a white man she looked back at so lovingly as she got up

Yeah, I heard tires squealing as my head jerked back two inches on my neck when I saw the white guy too.

He gets out of bed too and sensuously helps her to get dressed for her day.

Yeah, only women directors would think of a sexy, loving scene involving a woman getting dressed instead of undressed.

Next you find out our sister, Nova, is a Yoruba spiritual herbalist medicine woman who lives in a house that sits in the country version of "the hood" To be specific, her house in the 9th ward of New Orleans of Hurricane Katrina fame. She is down the road quite a ways from the family farm which is located in the fictional Saint Josephine.

Nova gives weed away for free to the old women who has to live with pain (sans a medical doctor and insurance?). It's not long before we also find out Nova grows enough weed to sell. A strong social justice advocate she only sells to young men who are willing to spread flyers about social justice issues having to do with black men in prison. 

Then, you find out Nova is an award winning journalist too

And just when you think Nova couldn't be any more complicated, you find out the white man she's been sleeping with for years is a cop, a married one.

I was like, "Damn girl."

No one is faithful I am weak

I go astray

Forgive me for my ways

RALPH ANGEL

The first time we see Nova's brother, Ralph Angel Bordelon, we don't know who he is either. 

We watch a young black man tell a very small light-skinned boy

holding a barbie doll to wait for him near a place where some young men are playing basketball. Before we ever hear these two characters' names we see the tenderness between them and know that they are father and son. 

Ralph Angel walks across the street and seconds later he is robbing a Mom-and-Pop -sized grocery store.

Watching this on my television, my head reared back again as Ralph Angel shows the white clerk his gun.

When this man-child goes back to the basketball court to get his son there are tears in his eyes. As if you couldn't guess by that scene alone, it doesn't take long to understand what's happening inside Ralph Angel's head. 

First, he tries to give the money he stole to his Aunt for taking care of his son while he was in prison. He makes up some lie about somebody owed him some money when she asks where he got the money 

Later the audience can see the shame coming off him in misty waves when he later offers the same money refused by his Aunt Vi to his father for taking care of his son, Blue, while he was in prison.   

It's hard to tell if his father's face is judgmental or doubtful both, but he takes the money.

Ralph Angel so reminds me of the real life Latino member of THE CENTRAL PARK FIVE.  Like that real life man, Ralph Angel considers himself nothing, considers himself less of a man if he cannot financially provide for himself and his child  --and he is especially ashamed in front of his father. 

Our society says men are nothing if they can't earn money. Therefore men will do anything to get money and be a provider "the way they are supposed to be" -- no matter what the actual circumstances are.   

In this episode and in later episodes we can see how impossible  the provider role has been made for Ralph Angel now that he has a record. 

Seven months out of prison, Ralph Angel is trying so hard to make good and you feel for him. The audience wants Ralph Angel to succeed so much it hurts.   

However you wind up being afraid for Ralph Angel, not because of outside forces -- though outside threats are there too-- but because Ralph Angel always seems on the edge of making horrendous choices for quasi-right reasons. His first emotional reaction to setback and pressure is almost always an understandable but childish anger. 

He can accept "the way things the way they are supposed to be"  a lot more easily than he can accept "the way things are."   It is heartwarming and disturbing to watch Ralph Angel's best characteristics be his ability to feel, to cry, and to engage with his son despite having so much growing up to do himself.

It's going to be interesting to watch the women in his life continue to alternate between trying to support him, guide him, spoil him, reign him in, bolster him, and protect him.

If I've seen a more thorough examination of a black man on television, I don't remember it.     

I hear voices and I can't stand to be alone

'Cause emptiness is all I have ever known

Soiled by my lust I feel no shame

No longer forsaken when they call my name

CHARLIE

When the audience meets the final Bordelon sibling, Charlotte "Charlie" Bordelon, we notice is she significantly "high-yella," lighter skinned than her very dark-skinned brother, sister, and father. (And when I say dark-skinned, I mean I had to adjust the brightness and colors on my television set since I don't have HD)   

If a white or black man had been in charge of creating QUEEN SUGAR, I'd have assumed the casting director thought the actress playing Charlie was cute. I would have thought that there was no reason for this dramatic skin color difference between Charlie, her father and her sister Nova, and her brother Ralph Angel.   

And I'd have been right 9.5 times out of 10

But QUEEN SUGAR is black female feminist made

Charlie Bordelon  is paler than her brother and sister for a reason. She lighter because she has a different mother. The other thing that's very "real world" about Charlie's being light-skinned, with semi-white features, is that her appearance has had an impact on her options. 

Charlie Bordelon, though a super intelligent woman on her own, is super rich because she is married to a black man who is a professional basketball player. 

Charlie manages her husband's career but she's still a trophy wife. And she starts to find out she's been acquired like a trophy when she is having lunch in an upscale restaurant with other light-skinned wives of basketball players . They are talking about doing a reality show when they all of them, except Charlie, get an phone alert about their basketball player husbands are involved in some sort of sex scandal.   

Later it comes out these players are being accused of raping a sex worker (who is not white but lighter than all of the basketball wives, including Charlie)  Charlie feels sorry for the other wives in a condescending way...until she finds out her husband, Davis, has been accused of rape too.  

 And when Charlie finds out...oooh baby.

Beautiful angels come to my bed

I am satisfied on their flesh I have fed

 AUNT VI  

The first time we see Aunt Vi and her boyfriend Hollywood, they seem to have been together forever. It's awesome to see THE LOVE STORY in a series be focused on a sexy older couple.

Believe it or not, most all of the above is captured in the very first episode.  


By episode 10, the Bordelon family's black history including slavery, Jim Crow, the Great Depression, and lynchings have all been linked together to show how they've gotten to be in the position they are in. And it's done in such a way that you get a full sense of every Black American family's story.

* * * * *

You should love QUEEN SUGAR because

the story is black

the music is black

the problems are black

the family groove is black

the series is constructed using black girl magic

The story is honest and normal in ways you never get to see on television when black people are the stars. There are class and status divisions between the three siblings. Nova can speak the white "Kings English" (the spoken/broken English white people are used to) but code-switches seamlessly. Ralph Angel speaks with the slow southern version of black vernacular. And Charlie pretty much stays with the white King's English but uses black slang occasionally.

The attention to black detail is amazing. And one of the details I read about recently I find fascinating: Nova is not in QUEEN SUGAR, the book by Natalie Baszile. The Nova Bordelon character was created and inserted into the series. And Nova is the one that brings a lot of what is happening to black people in recent History (Hurricane Katrina) and right now (The New Jim Crow -- prisons for profit)

Ava DuVernay's QUEEN SUGAR lets you see into each character rather quickly by first showing them with the person they love most and/or is drawn to the most. By the end of the first show, I knew that the resolutions of their problems will be complicated because not one of the characters is totally innocent and good.

You should love Queen Sugar because all this honest blackness is coming from a book by a black woman; and a show creator that is a black woman;and being framed by the music director of the series, a black woman. And Ava DuVernay is trying to make sure all the directors are women, most of them black so far. And the series is on a black woman's network, Oprah's OWN.

Oprah Winfrey and Ava DuVernay (SELMA 13TH

Again, all of this together makes QUEEN SUGAR is serious black feminist girl magic. 

I love QUEEN SUGAR because of what is in front of the camera and what is behind the camera. And I love it even when I don't like what's going on. I love the Bordelons. Every last one of them has done some seriously shady sh**,  sometimes for good reasons and sometimes for weak but human reasons.

I could be biased, but QUEEN SUGAR feels like it's the best black thing that's been on television ever. 

QUEEN SUGAR IS THE TRUTH.

I don't think I've ever seen so much subtle blackness in  a television show before. Furthermore, I don't think there's a single black male director has gotten anywhere near being as brave as Ava DuVernay, as far as showing, in addition to racism, the effects of status, sexism, class, colorism, social justice, and  even rabid ambition in black people much less black women.   

I think everybody should be watching QUEEN SUGAR, especially black women. This is FUBU television for real.

SEASON 1 IS ON NETFLIX AND HULU. Watch the first episode of QUEEN SUGAR, First Things First for $1.99 at Amazon. Link is here: 


SEASON 2 BEGAN ON June 20th. It's available on OWN. If you cable cutters out there don't have cable, it's likely available on SLING. And Season Two is definitely available on Amazon in SD for 24.99 .

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QUEEN SUGAR SEASON 3 BEGINS AT THE END OF MAY

Feeling Rebloggy

Charley (Dawn-Lyen Gardner) remains in the thick of the trials and tribulations in both her personal and professional life as she continues to battle the Landry family [to save the family farm and save her new mill] while also trying to ensure Micah’s safety and future.  

Ralph Angel (Kofi Siriboe) is still reeling from learning from Darla (Bianca Lawson) that he might not be the biological father of his son, Blue (Ethan Hutchison), and attempts to push forward as the new cane season begins.  

A new and unexpected love in the form of an old friend comes into Nova’s (Rutina Wesley) life and challenges her long-held notions of relationships while also offering her something she didn’t think she could ever have.

~BLACKFILM.COM 

Read More: 

http://www.blackfilm.com/read/2018/04/key-art-behind-the-scenes-featurette-to-queen-sugar-season-3/

APRIL REIGN'S #OscarsSoWhite IS THE GIFT THAT KEEPS ON GIVING BLACK WOMEN TO THE BIG SCREEN

I don't know if you've noticed, but there are a lot more black women on the big screen lately. Little black girls are getting to see themselves and the black women they'll grow into as smart, courageous, independent, loving, and beautiful. 

And we probably have April Reign to thank for this...at least in part

"...April Reign was watching the Oscar nominations announcement on TV with her family. Struck by the lack of ethnic diversity among those whose names were called, Reign – a journalist in New York – took to Twitter to voice her disapproval. The hashtag she coined – #OscarsSoWhite – caught on immediately.The hashtag #OscarsSoWhite resurfaced again, a year later, when not one person of color was nominated. "

https://www.theguardian.com/film/2016/feb/25/oscarssowhite-10-point-plan-hashtag-academy-awards-april-reign

April Reign

On television, Shonda Rhimes and Mara Brock Akil have already broken glass ceilings and got the black girl magic ball rolling with GIRLFRIENDS, SCANDAL, HOW TO GET AWAY WITH MURDER,  and BEING MARY JANE. It isn't long before Issa Rae, Michaela Coel, and Ava DuVernay produce INSECURE, CHEWING GUM, and QUEEN SUGAR and follow in their black female footsteps.

But it's APRIL REIGN who deserves some credit for what starts happening on the big screen

Spring ahead a year or so after the #OscarsSoWhite hashtag protest does its thing two years running and GIRLS TRIP out does the incredibly over-hyped DUNKIRK theater per theater at one point according to Box Office Mojo stats. 

HIDDEN FIGURES was likely already on its way to getting made, and the racism in he movie was muted due to having a white male director. But the black female stars did get some recognition in the wake of  #OscarsSoWhite protests initiated by April Reign.

There is even a changing of the guard at Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. It embarked "on an unprecedented, years-long push to fill its ranks with new members who are different than the older white men tasked with the bulk of Oscar voting in the past...."

http://www.vulture.com/2018/02/how-new-oscar-voters-are-changing-the-way-the-academy-thinks.html

The movie MOONLIGHT, a coming of age story for a gay black man, wins Best Picture at the academy awards -- the award ceremony a disaster because the white folks are so sure that white business as usual is going to continue, LA LA LAND is erroneously given the award at first. 

BLACK PANTHER stops being a rumor and becomes a reality. 

And Ava DuVernay is able to do the unheard of. She is able to make a big budget movie, a 100 million dollar film called A WRINKLE IN TIME, where a little black girl is the star . 

Whenever you start to doubt if protest works, think of April Reign. Whenever the going gets really, really tough and you start to doubt #BLACKLIVESMATTER do not doubt that protest works even when it works slowly. A decade or so back, unarmed black people died at the hands of police and nobody but people on the block knew about it. 

Now the whole world knows when certain black men die. Black women? Most of our deaths at the hands of police are still ignored, but last week an 11 year old girl named Naomi Wadler once again added black women back to #BlackLivesMatter movement, originally created by Alicia Garza, Opal Tometi, and Patrisse Cullors. 

Protest works. It may not work alone. It may not work quickly. But protest is always the beginning of the end of this pocket of white supremacy over here or that pocket of white supremacy over there. And sometimes the beginning is just a hashtag like #BlackLivesMatter or #OscarsSoWhite.

I can't tell you how important it is for little black girls to see themselves at the movies and on television, to see themselves as smart, courageous, magic, and beautiful. I can't even explain how important it is to simply see themselves as not-erased. But April Reign understood how important the erasure of black people at the movies is. And I'm grateful she spoke up.

MORE ON WHAT APRIL REIGN IS DOING NOW
https://www.womensmediacenter.com/shesource/expert/april-reign

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Kearran Giovanni Lands Lead in NBC Hitchcockian Drama SUSPICION

Feeling Rebloggy

Kearran Giovanni (famous for MAJOR CRIMES will play opposite Derek Luke)

 Created/written by Goldberg based on the book by Joseph Finder and directed by Brad Anderson, Suspicion is described as a Hitchcockian thriller about how far one man will go to save the people he loves. 

After Danny Goldman (Derek Luke

) accepts a handshake loan from his new friend and millionaire neighbor, he gets a visit from the FBI and learns that the decision is one he will regret for the rest of his life. 

Coerced to work as an informant for the FBI to earn back his freedom, Danny is forced to infiltrate a world of violence and corruption while trying to protect his family.

Giovanni will play Lucy Fletcher. A psychotherapist, Lucy is beyond thrilled to marry Danny (Luke). She’s also eager to take on more motherly duties should Ellie need it, and develop her friendship with Celina Canter (Ryan).

~DEADLINE

READ MORE:  

http://deadline.com/2018/03/major-crimes-kearran-giovanni-lands-lead-nbc-drama-pilot-suspicion-1202351915/

BLACK PANTHER: THE DARK-SKINNED FEMINIST ANATOMY OF A BILLION DOLLAR BLACK SUCCESS

"Marvel’s “Black Panther” continues its record-breaking streak, passing the $1 billion mark at the global box office in just 26 days...

“Black Panther” has grossed $521 million domestically, making it the ninth-highest release of all time. In its fourth weekend, “Black Panther” is heading for a $40 million-plus weekend, which would make it the No. 2 superhero release of all time over “The Dark Knight’s” $535 million."

http://variety.com/2018/film/news/black-panther-billion-global-box-office-1202723326/ 

Black Panther is also doing well in China where it just opened on March 9th. It made 22.7 million dollars in one day, making it the third biggest Marvel movie to open in China. ]

Domestically, BLACK PANTHER'S success jumped out of the gate due in no small part to black people being hungry to see themselves on screen as something other than sidekicks and comic relief. 

Most black folks know this. A lot of non-black folks know it too.

But BLACK PANTHER being presenting black women as true equals in a fictional world with the most natural looking feminism I've ever seen is a huge part of its success as well. 

I went to the theater on opening night with every expectation that we'd see T'Challa's sister Shuri in the lab for only a moment or three just like James Bond's Q, the tech genius in most all Bond movies. And I expected Nakia, T'Challa's girlfriend, would smile, kiss, and send the Black Panther off into battle. 

In other words, I thought the Black Panther's sister and girlfriend would have approximately 5 cute little minutes worth of screen time a piece because men have not done well by us at the movies. 

For Okoye, T'Challa's general, I was hoping for a little bit more on opening night at the movies, maybe one short fight scene. I mostly expected Danai Gurira's charater to stand behind T'Challa and be a yes-woman.   

And I expected the girlish confusion to be presented at almost every step of the way, with a man to clear things up for them same as Chris Pine did almost every step of the way during WONDER WOMAN. (a "girlishness" which was praised by some white male reviewers of the movie and unnoticed by many white female reviewers of the movie.) 

But I did not get any women-business as usual at the movies with BLACK PANTHER.  

In this movie, the women are women (Nakia and Okoye) and the girls are tech saavy genius black girls (Shuri) who do what they are told but step into the fray when duty calls.

Future STEM Researcher

Nakia tells T'Challa Wakanda is wrong for being isolationist at the very beginning of the film. Okoye is more a partner and protector than a sidekick. Both Nakia and Okoye have major conflicts with their love interests. And while Shuri is indeed this movie's Q, Shuri winds up being at Black Panther's side during critical battle scenes.  

Most importantly, when the audience full of little black girls and little black boys sees King T'Challa making decisions they see him consulting with a board or directors, if you will, that is at least half women and includes his mother. Every opinion, male and female, is valued when big decisions are made about what course Wakanda should take.  

By the end of the movie Killmonger and #TeamToxicMasculinity have been defeated and King T'Challa has changed his mind toward what Nakia explained to him in the first few minutes of the film: With great power comes great responsibility a.k.a. The Spiderman Maxim but probably previously attributable to Jesus.

The story line for BLACK PANTHER was so packed with natural feminism --even if the Dora Milaje had not been in the film at all-- that I was shocked to find out that someone like WORLD OF WAKANDA writer Roxane Gay had not written major chunks of the screenplay. 

Apparently it was DIRECTOR/WRITER Ryan Coogler who very deliberately focused on having strong black female characters from the start.

Another major factor in BLACK PANTHER'S domestic success after (Massive Marvel Marketing, story line, controversial villain) is the presentation of dark-skinned women as heroes. 

The success of HIDDEN FIGURES and GIRLS TRIP and almost all of Tyler Perry's less than stellar movies should tell anybody in white Hollywood how hungry all shades of black women are to see themselves in any capacity.

But BLACK PANTHER gave us strong feminist black women, women whose racial identity you never had to look up on google to be sure she was black.  

ILLUSION OF INCLUSION: Paler than pale, bi-racial looking women
who may or may not identify as black, who don't have afro hair 

That is, the paper bag test was not used for hiring black women this time out. In BLACK PANTHER, a black director who has a black wife that cannot pass a paper bag test in the dark, chose black women actresses that are the same shade as the black male actors for a major change.   

Ryan Coogler and Zinzi Evans

With one possible exception, every big budget movie that has presented black women that are easily identified as black has earned far more money than expected. I expect our track record at the movies is going to have more and more impact. 

Maybe Lupita N'yongo thinks the same thing. 

She bought the rights to Chimamanda Adichie's  book AMERICANAH not long after she starred in 12 YEARS A SLAVE. Striking while the iron is hot, thanks to BLACK PANTHER, she's recently announced that she's again moving forward on that movie project.  

After the success of HIDDEN FIGURES, GIRLS TRIP, and now BLACK PANTHER I have every expectation that N'yongo will get all the money and encouragement she needs to get AMERICANAH the level of attention it deserves. I, for one, cannot wait to see how African women tell the story of a college aged black woman blogger from Africa moving to the United States.

Instagram: @mamaayi1/Instagram 

BLACK PANTHER should be a major stepping stone toward our diversity becoming a lot more diverse than it has been and also getting more black women's stories to the public.