I do not believe that any African-American actress with an ounce of self-respect would have taken the lead in Amazon MGM Studios' controversial new romantic comedy "Challengers", which is why they hired ZENDAYA.
Born ZENDAYA MAREE STOERMER COLEMAN (27) in Oakland, California to a white mother and African father, Zendaya plays Tashi, a former tennis prodigy turned coach, who is at the center of a love triangle between her husband and her ex-boyfriend, who are both white.
Publicity shots for the film show Zendaya sitting on a bed between two dorky white guys in what looks like the intro to a gonzo interracial porn scene. Meanwhile, the unofficial promotional graphic for "Challengers" has outraged many black American moviegoers by sneakily inserting the "N-word".
None of this, however, is new territory for working girls like Zendaya or Dominican actress ZOE SALDANA (45), who infamously donned a prosthetic nose and blackface to portray the role of legendary jazz singer and activist NINA SIMONE (45). The problem with all of this is that women like Saldana and Coleman don't really identify as black -- and they often resent being categorized as such.
They prefer to be called "people of color", which pretty much means anyone with a tan.
That is, unless, the job calls for a genuine black American in the position. Luckily, there are Ivy League universities with curriculums dedicated to teaching special cases like AMANDA SEALES (42) how to "act black."
Then out comes the prosthetic nose, war paint, and the Ancestry.com DNA report proving some distant great grandparent (five times removed) is .01% Igbo. Which lands you a high-profile job in a male-dominated field, like showrunner for an offensive Netflix animated reboot of Good Times that features a drug-dealing black toddler.
Sounds like fun, right?
Back in 2013, the old staff at EBONY magazine wrote this:
"Strong, successful and arguably PROUD self-identified Black women of note like HALLE BERRY (57), OPRAH WINFREY (70), and MELISSA HARRIS-PERRY (50) had all been slapped with this [Negro bed wench] label. Even fictional characters weren't out of bounds: Scandal lead Olivia Pope [played by KERRY WASHINGTON (47)] is considered by many to be the epitome of the Negro bed wench. Fiercely independent and unquestionably fabulous, the ONLY thing Pope's character has in common with an enslaved woman is sexual contact with a White man…but apparently, that's all she needs. And that’s what this term has boiled down to: a Negro bed wench is essentially a Black woman who, through her feminism, her success, and/or her dating options, challenges the institution of Black patriarchy. (Challenging Black patriarchy was never the same as actively working to uphold White supremacy, but what would this discussion be without a false equivalency?)"
No. The real false equivalency was comparing getting screwed on top of an office desk by your married white boss to a healthy interracial relationship. That's the type of woman empowerment that gave us KAMALA HARRIS (59) and landed EBONY in bankruptcy court.
It's the same story different day. Let's just leave this one to TARIQ NASHEED (49).
