Breukelen Bleu weighs in on the Aaliyah Biopic saga

Breukelen Bleu weighs in on the Aaliyah Biopic saga

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There is a lot of brouhaha taking place, over the casting of Zendaya Coleman to play singer/actor, Aaliyah, in an upcoming biopic. Many black women are in an uproar at what they feel is yet another attempt, to erase the image of Black Women, by casting a mixed race person to personify and represent a 'black' womans image.

And while I share their overall angst about the ongoing attack and replacement of black women by racially ambiguous archetypes, on this issue (Aaliyah), I feel it necessary to speak to something else I am observing.

Aaliyah, while attractive and talented as an entertainer, was chosen to be a star, undeniably in part due to her light skin, chestnut brown eyes, and long hair. True to the misogynistic intraracism of the black community, black female artists/entertainers/actors are usually chosen from a very narrow range of aesthetic traits, which primarily hinge on said woman's LACK of obvious African/Black features and physical characteristics. Aaliyah was no different in this regard and just like Alicia Keys, Mariah Carey, Lena Horne, Dorothy Dandridge, Eartha Kitt and many of the other black female stars over time, she was promoted, in great part, to rise to stardom BECAUSE of her obvious mixed heritage and watered down black phenotype.

So, its really hard for me to get caught up in the fight for her image to not be watered down by white casting choices in this upcoming biopic. I cant put my energy behind this one. Sorry. Its kind of crazy to call into question, the colorist/racist agenda of white television folk for casting a girl to play a woman who only reached stardom because of the colorist/racist agenda of black folk. Especially when the casting director (Twinkie Byrd) is a black woman, herself.

Lets keep it real here. Aliyah was only popular because she was light skinned with long hair. There were PLENTY of more talented singers/artists who never got a shot, because they did not embody the racist/colorist aesthetic that black people cherish. So for black people to now be in an uproar, cuz the white man ONE UPPED their own colorism, is silly.

Definitely not a debate I am interested in entering.

But thats just me. (shrugs)

- Breukelen Bleu

·         Fiji Odbo furthermore I think there isn't enough nuance in this discussion if me limit it to skin-tone. There is a bias towards european features within our community too which compounds the problem of colourism. Let's be real, light-skinned or not Aaliyah did not have typical black features(And don't come at me pretending that you don't know what that is because folks know EXACTLY what I'm talking about). There are a lot of women on this thread talking about how they are the same colour as Aaliyah without the ambiguous features to match, it's not as simple as just skin tone.

Like · Reply · 5 · June 23 at 8:24pm

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The Black Woman Think Tank. Thank you, Fiji Odbo. Yes, the discussion IS about more than just shades of 'lightness', and the fact that the bigger point was deflected from, by distractions over focusing on increments of color, shows that we, as bp are STILL unwilling to truly FACE our issues. None of this happens because of ONE thing. ITs shades skin color, "grades" of hair texture, and expressions of phenotype and facial features that are measured in the smallest ways, that delineate one look from the other. we ALL know this as blacks, but when it comes time to discuss how WE participate in our OWN dysfunction, the conversation never goes anywhere because nobody wants to admit that they, TOO, have fallen for the okey doke. As long as the discussion is about black MALE colorism, its cool. But ask BW to talk about our OWN preferences for lighter skin, softer/longer hair and 'keen' features as representative of black WOMANHOOD, and suddenly we all get confused.

I stand by what I said in this post and refuse to get myself all riled up over this Aaliyah situation, because i KNOW why Aaliyah rose to fame in the first place, and it had EVERYTHING to do with black peoples (and yes, that includes black WOMENS) preference for all things 'mixed' looking.

Unless and until we can own OUR shit, we can not expect whites or bm to own theirs. This conversation played to EXACTLY to my point, in the original post.

EXACTLY.

Like · 6 · June 23 at 8:33pm · Edited

·         Maggie Green And by the way Aaliyah had a freaking Nose job done. And if she did have a natural keen nose. So freaking what?! Do you realize how many black women have natural both keen nose shapes, and flat noses. Some black women actually have a natural folded eye shape this doesn't make them less black or more black than the next. And with better hair maintenance loads of black women are able to attain Aaliyah's long hair and did you think she had naturally straight hair? Nope she pressed it.

Like · June 25 at 6:36pm

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Fiji Odbo I said nothing about her nose, but the fact that you felt the need to mention it means that you know exactly what I'm talking about. NOONE is saying that all BW should look like India Arie (and again, the fact that you are so defensive says ALOT about you), nowhere did I say that there was no diversity in black features, which you so wrongly inferred. My point is that black people give way to much power and visibility to the OUTLIERS within our group. The avg black women looks closer to India than Aaliyah, especially when we consider the entire diaspora. Let's not act brand new and forget what the avg black person looks like lol

Like · 4 · June 25 at 11:11pm · Edited