The Goddess that is Lupita Nyong'o

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I love Lupita Nyong'o she is absolutely wonderful, not only is she a wonderful actress she represents so much to black girls everywhere. She played Patsey in the critically-acclaimed film 12 Years a Slave, having to face the trauma of playing a character that went through emotional, physical and sexual abuse. That's not all, she also had to deal with being in a movie set around institutional racism (when it wasn't so subtle) and slavery. This is a big deal, some people seem to have this notion that black actors playing in a movie set during slavery isn't a big deal... it is set during slavery after all. What many don't consider is how this affect them, they're placed in a context and situation they couldn't fathom existed to begin with. Is this notion based on the idea that black people are naturally meant to play slaves? Are we expected to play nothing less, not to mention most slave films take on the paternalistic view and often uses the "white-savior complex." There wasn't a film until 12 Years a Slave did we see slaves being portrayed as human, this film demonstrates that black people of the African Diaspora aren't descendants of slaves we're descendants of people who were enslaved. Lupita portrayed the humanity of Patsey and countless untold stories of enslaved black women that were brought not only in the States but also the Caribbean, Central, and South America where 90% of enslaved Africans were brought to.

Lupita Nyong'o represents so much to black girls, she's a symbol of hope, beauty and perseverance, especially in a field where racism prevails and has a huge problem when it comes to diversity.  Check out this link to really get a perspective on how "diverse" Hollywood really is. Lupita portrays that it's possible to be successful in hollywood, not only as a young black woman but as a young black dark-skinned woman and woman of color. In this world black is not synonymous with beautiful, I wrote a paper on how Eurocentric beauty standards affects the self-perception of black women, teens and children and how the lack of representation plays a role in that.



At the ESSENCE black women in Hollywood Luncheon Lupita made a beautiful speech about her struggle with finding herself beautiful and overcoming self-hate. In the speech she notes that a young black girl wrote a letter telling her how Lupita's worldwide presence or fame stopped her from bleaching her skin. This is the impact, many say isn't necessary, that demonstrates why representation of all people of color in film and TV is necessary. Lupita understands and is aware of how her skin is perceived by both Hollywood  and the millions of black girls and women around the world.

The Oscars are on tonight and hopefully black excellence will prevail over (white) mediocrity, we can only hope it won't completely be what The Golden Globes were. To demonstrate black excellence even more, a recent study shows that:

This video explains this even further.
Black History may be over but black excellence and history is continuous.