On a television show known to teach the lessons of pre-pubescence, Sesame Street hosted Oscar award-winning actress, Lupita Nyong’o last week for a much more profound lesson. In a playful repartee with her ticklish counterpart, Nyong’o and Elmo discuss skin as a protective, unifying and beautiful part of people.
“That’s the thing I love most about skin, Elmo,” Nyong’o said in her cameo, “Skin comes in lots of beautiful shades and colors.”
Since she swept the award show scene earlier this year and came to the forefront of fashion soon thereafter, Nyong’o has been surrounded by social buzzwords such as “dark-skinned”, “most beautiful” and “iconic”. But she is not letting these accolades do all of the talking. The Yale educated actress from Kenya is steering a ship of stardom with color consciousness at the helm. Contrary to the muffled nature of the color blind ideology, which is a mindset that dismisses the idea that race and privilege are interconnected, the increasing public will to learn of Nyong’o’s story and lifestyle has incited the type of racial understanding that color consciousness is rooted in.
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| Lupita Nyong'o in Prada on The Academy Awards red carpet. Photo courtesy of PopSugar.com |
In February 2014, at the Essence Magazine Black Women in Hollywood event, Nyong’o spoke on the constitution of beauty.
“My mother would say to me ‘you can’t eat beauty, it doesn’t feed you.’ And what my mother meant when she said, ‘you can’t eat beauty’ was that you can’t rely on how you look to sustain you. What actually sustains us—what is fundamentally beautiful—is compassion,” Nyong’o said.
Lupita has now become her own buzzword. Combatting the power structure that serves the white individuals in Hollywood, Nyong’o has garnered support as a black actor with influential prowess. Throughout the history of media, the power elite media groups bearing authority over what and who will be represented have kept with a pale archetype.
Upon earning People Magazine’s title of “People’s Most Beautiful”, Nyong’o said:
"I was happy for all the girls who would see me on [it] and feel a little more seen."
This rift in the dominant culture’s representation of media figures allows for a more welcoming and authentic media sphere. White privilege in media has allowed for white audiences to incessantly find connections onscreen, and Nyong’o is now added to the abbreviated list of figures to fill the racial void in film.
Lupita Nyong’o has offered a palette of work that transcends the racial barrier in what hopefully will allow for forthcoming roles that are a lot less skin-deep.
Lupita Nyong'o speaking out about black beauty, specifically geared towards dark skinned women has really, as we see in the second video, made an impact and it fits in perfectly with the conversations surrounding color consciousness and the importance of not being color-blind or living with a perspective that promotes assimilation. In this we see the way that it really affects people to have representation, and there is so much benefit in having that on a personal level and on a social level. Bringing that forward was one of the many amazing things that Lupita Nyong'o has accomplished.
ReplyDeleteI love that you bring to mind that fires like N'yongo work to advocate for black individuals and the way that they can be appreciated as important figures who do not assimilate into American culture. Rather, her photos have been paired with phrases that announce her varied beauty and the way black women bring a purposeful and alternate perspective and look to high-fashion. thank you for acknowledging that!
DeleteI really love that you chose to speak about Lupita! I think that it is so profound as a woman of color to see another woman of color being recognized for her beauty. She is creating great waves for those who come after her. However on the contrary, it is interesting in the timing of her arrival. Lupita is not the first beautiful dark-skinned black female actress by any means, but she is one of the first to be HAILED for it. For instance, Whoopi Goldberg made a string of successful movies, was and is highly accomplished both in acting, comedy, and politics. But she is not necessarily 'strikingly beautiful' by mainstream media standards, which I disagree with btw if anyone has ever seen Sister Act. She too was on Sesame Street, but she did not get to speak about the 'beauty of different color skin'. So though Lupita is quite deserving of her accolades, she is phenomenal to say the least, but it is interesting to see how much differently Hollywood and the media treats her so much differently because society sees her as 'beautiful'. She is something to look at, that says "wow, I guess Black women can be beautiful too", which is so dehumanizing, which is so insulting, to Lupita as well as black women in general, not to be recognized simply for your talent, intelligence, and prowess, but because you look good.
ReplyDeleteThanks for challenging me to draw comparisons with other black reales in history, Makeda. I think that would definitely make this post, and the dialogue of racial issues, stronger. Perhaps it is a matter of timing, too. with the platform that Lupita is offered now as a black woman, it was a much larger taboo topic as we have seen to be discussing race when Sister Act was on the forefront. Thank you for reading!
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