Taraji P. Henson, 41, won a Golden Globe recently, for her role as Cookie on Empire. While I'm genuinely happy for Taraji, I can't help but question if she was awarded due to her portraying a stereotypical role. When Empire first emerged, many people in the conscious community said that Fox was only showcasing a predominately black cast because they were "stereotypically black." Let's be honest, the storyline for the show fulfills every stereotype possible. It portrays a loud-mouth, angry black woman, who curses too much and has served jail time--due to, her husband's drug dealing past. In addition, the father has a bad relationship with his sons--one of which is a rapper. If that's not cliche enough the educated son is married to a white girl and the father was formerly engaged to a very fair skin woman of color while the mom was in jail. Yup, it pretty much hit the nail.
Taraji, has played other roles that were less stereotypical, but she was never recognized until she played the role of the ghetto-fabulous, leopard wearing Cookie. White America seems to love black women being sassy. A black woman with a slick tongue becomes this other-worldly figure. Black actors are usually recognized for their work when they take roles as hookers, pimps, maids, criminals, drug dealers, slaves or anything that has to do with living in the projects. Octavia Spencer, won an Oscar for Best Supporting Actress for her role as Minny in the film The Help. Minny, was an uneducated maid with an abusive spouse who fussed about people burning her fried chicken. Terrance Howard, was nominated for Best Performance by an Actor at the Oscars in 2005, for his leading role in Hustle & Flow. I find this to be so disturbing because he played an abusive pimp, who manipulated women for money and yearned for a rap career. We cannot forget 12 Years A Slave which won an Academy Award for Best Picture and a Golden Globe for Best Motion Picture among other awards. This movie helped Lupita Nyong'o win an Academy Award and made her an Hollywood it girl. Don't get me wrong, I like these movies, but it's just something about black actors being seen as subservient or struggling that seems too familiar to how they were viewed in films in the past. It's like we are being mocked in the media and few are able to acknowledge it. It's hard to come to terms with the idea that we are a modern minstrel show. We have to fight, speak improperly or be uneducated to receive recognition. I totally understand that actors need their jobs, but these depictions affect how the rest the world see us. I have met countless white people who imitate me using this sassy voice--even when there wasn't any "sass" in my voice. They acted this way because this was the way they'd seen black people act on television or in films, and therefore. expected me to act the same way. Black actors need to be conscious of what characters they illustrate in the media. I want to be known as black but as a human as well. These roles as maids and criminals rob us of who we are. We become less human. We are more than what these type of roles portray. Many of us, are educated, intelligent, and multidimensional. I want the media to start to demonstrate that so the world can see that as well. Comments are closed.
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AuthorMy name is Kiara and writing is the way I express myself. Archives
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