Over the past month, we’ve been forced to learn the names of too many Black women whose lives were stolen at the hands of domestic violence: Dr. Cerina Wanzer Fairfax, Barbara Deer, Nancy Metayer, Ashley Jenae, Davonta Curtis, and more.
As the list of victims grows longer, the spotlight on femicide, a term for the intentional killing with a gender-related motivation, is growing brighter and brighter. According to the Violence Policy Center, 9 out of 10 Black women murdered by males are killed by someone they know, and are killed at four times the rate of white women. Despite making up 14% of the female population, Black women made up 30% of the women murdered by men.
Domestic violence is one of the many topics Aleesha Harris tackles in the film adaptation of her play “Is God Is.” Starring Sterling K. Brown, Vivica A. Fox, and Erika Alexander, the film follows two twins, Kara Young and Mallori Johnson, on their quest for revenge. In a conversation with theGrio, Brown, who plays “The Monster” in the film, reflected on the growing Black femicide crisis.
theGrio: This film is both fortunately and unfortunately very timely, given all the black femicide that we’ve seen in April. Given your character in this film and the fact that, in real life, you’re married to a Black woman, I would love to know what message you would give Black men, specifically in this season, as we navigate all of this. What message would you give them?
“There is a way in which we can be in concert with one another and not in competition. I feel like there’s a level of frustration that exists sometimes because Black men know that we live in a patriarchal society mainstream, but that our culture and our community function more as a matriarchy. That is by design,” Brown explained. “The way in which we’ve been separated from one another, from chattel slavery through now, is by design. Conflict has been created amongst us by design, because if we are beating up on each other and we’re in conflict with each other, then it keeps us from focusing on anything above and beyond us.”
“Recognize that, like women want to be in partnership,” Brown encouraged men. “There’s a way that we can walk side by side in tandem that is for our mutual benefit, And quit focusing on these small things and these small frustrations, in a way, because it doesn’t even seem like it, but this is what was intended, that there are certain things that have been propagated by design, and we don’t have to drink the Kool Aid.”
Additionally, Brown acknowledged the importance of women being financially independent and protecting themselves. However, the “Paradise” star also sat with the tension that lives on the other side of that conversation.
“Then there is this sort of dichotomy that exists within me, because it’s like, can you have something that is authentically melded harmonious, if you are waiting for the other shoe to drop? Is there a way to have your cake and eat it too?” he pondered. “I feel like there’s a level of sympathy and empathy that both men and women, Black men and Black women, need to have for one another. Like, if you try to put yourself in the other person’s shoes for a minimum amount of time, you’d be like, ‘Oh, I understand how this could be a scary situation for that woman to enter into. [Or] I can understand how this man might feel emasculated by this particular thing.’”
Seeing things from another perspective is part of the magic of Harris’ “Is God Is,” according to Brown. And while the actor is bracing himself for the collective side-eye female audiences may give him, seeing his polarizing character in the film, he hopes it sparks conversation.
“I feel like the movie, hopefully, is an opportunity to enter into a conversation, to say, like, you know what? I’ve never considered things from your perspective, and I think that’s the beginning. I don’t know if there’s some sort of end, but I feel like the beginning is really trying to understand somebody else’s perspective, especially between Black men and Black women.”
“So, give me all the side eyes you need, but know that underneath it all is just because [Sterling K.] Brown loves and wants to see you shine and soar and succeed. That’s it,” he concluded.
“Is God Is” is in theaters on May 16.
