The curious case of Zoe Saldana, Nina Simone and the erasure of black women in film

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Nina Simone was authenticity personified; she would absolutely not appreciate being portrayed by someone willfully complicit in the erasure of black women in film and using Hollywood’s history of racist casting decisions as justification. And if she means so much to Saldana, one would think that the actor understood this. Racism, a battle that scarred Nina, caused her to seek  artistic asylum in Europe where her talent would be appreciated and honored for the amazing gift that it was and remains today.

She didn’t get to use colorist privilege as a means to step in and out of blackness. She didn’t get to wear her complexion like a convenient accessory – nor did she want to. The fact that a black actress would assist Hollywood, in all of its white supremacist glory, to finally bend Nina’s image to its will — into something apparently more palatable for white masses — is far from an achievement.

In fact, it can easily be viewed as a failure.

Nina would not be happy

This is the reason why with every statement, pregnant with self-entitlement and self-congratulation, that Zoe Saldana makes, she alienates more fans and critics in the black community. Elizabeth Taylor  playing Cleopatra was not viewed as something to be proud of and neither is the white-washing of Nina Simone.

When speaking on being denied entrance into Philadelphia’s Curtis Institute of Music to train as the world’s first black classical pianist because of the institutionalized racism that so defined the United States, Nina Simone said with tears in her eyes, “Yes, I regret it. I think I would have been happy. I’m not very happy now.”

Anyone with even a passing knowledge of “The High Priestess of Soul” must be aware that Zoe Saldana is disrespecting her legacy by placing belief in her own talent above the visual authenticity necessary to tell such a powerful story. And I can easily envision Nina saying those very same words in response to knowing that the Afro-Latina actor cast to portray her is flippantly using historical Hollywood racism to justify the racist erasure of black women through colorist casting:

“I think I would have been happy. I’m not very happy now.”