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. "
 |
| 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
https://www.womensmediacenter.com/shesource/expert/april-reign
