Culture Is Important

Condoleezza Rice once said "We make a mistake when we say: 'you have to find role models that look like you.' If Sally Ride ... had been waiting for a female astronaut role model, she would never have done it." Which sure, I guess is true to some capacity, but I think that having a role model that looks like you is important. When I look for role models, I often find them in people I can relate to. An overwhelming number of times I find that I most relate to people of color. The other day at Wendy's a lady came in with her daughter, the little girl couldn't have been older than 4, and the most striking thing about her was the beat up picture she wouldn't let go of: a picture of Princess Tiana of "The Princess and The Frog," the only black Disney princess.

I know what you're thinking: why does it matter that she's holding on to a princess picture, every little girl does that. Okay, sure, but I've noticed that most girls pick a favorite princess because she has something to do with her. I babysit a girl named Ariel, and when a "Little Mermaid" song started playing from my Disney Spotify playlist she screamed "that's my song!" She connected to Princess Ariel on a name basis. For me, my favorite princess was Princess Jasmine (and Cinderella because she is such a quintessential princess); she looked the most similar to a young Maame B. I can't say that I did it purposely, more subconscious, but that was my reality; I related to her based of physicality: she looked the most like me. I wasn't a 5 year old lobbying for cultural representation in Disney, but that doesn't mean I wouldn't have benefited from a black princess when I was her age. It reminds me of when Glozell went to Disney Land and met Princess Tiana. It was a blaring example for the need for cultural representation.

I can't help but think of all the times people, including myself, have pointed out the lack of cultural diversity in Disney's most recent films such as Frozen. Every time I bring this up the same conversations ensues

Me: Why doesn't Frozen have people of color?
People who've never had lack of representation: The black princess is in the background during the ball in Frozen for .000012 seconds. 

Me: Why aren't the Frozen animated characters more diverse?
People who've never had lack of representation: It takes place in Scandinavia. Do you really think black people live in Scandinavia?

I have been in real arguments as to what ideas are too *far out there*, a talking snowman never seems to land in the same 'crossing the line' category as people of color surprisingly.

The upcoming film "Exodus: Gods and Kings" has a very diverse cast. It chronicles the Biblical story of Moses to a  T--if the T was upside down, inverted and then soaked in bleach. The tale of the Egyptian heir to the throne has an all white upper class cast. Roles like Moses and the entire royal family are cast by white people, while roles like "Egyptian Lower Class Civilian" and "Egyptian Thief" have been handed to people of color. This is far from the only depiction of Moses in a film, there is a far better version that's a cartoon: "The Prince of Egypt." I used to watch it all the time as a kid and it shows the story almost perfectly, see but that's not the point because "Exodus: Gods and Kings" is a whitewashed version and this one is going to be seen in more theaters, meaning more people will view it, meaning more people will associate the very brown man Moses, to a very non-brown Christian Bale.

And lastly on the topic of Keke Palmer, and where Ms. Rice and I differ. I've been rooting for Keke Palmer since "Akeelah and the Bee." I'd seen the Scripts National Spelling Bee before that film, but she actually made me (and many other young black girls) believe that I could win (I got no further than 2nd place in my school Spelling Bee with the word "quarantine;" I had to spell check that because I still don't know how to spell it). Even though I didn't come out a winner, I did come out a believer that anything is possible. Now Keke has a talk show called "Just Keke" making her the youngest talk show host. And her biggest accomplishment in my eyes is that she's just been cast as Cinderella on Broadway. That's such a breakthrough! Some 2 or 3 generations ago black people couldn't be seen in any Broadway production and now Keke is the leading role in an iconic fairytale.

I can't say that I'm happy with our current state. I'm not happy that there seems to be more colored girls in the background of movies and less on center stage. I'm not happy that Hollywood whitewashes often. I'm not happy that there's a trend towards believing that we should be 'color blind.' I'm not happy that embracing diversity in culture is often viewed as something to be ashamed of. I'm not happy that African, African-American, Asian, Latino and Native cultures are often used as costumes. So no, I'm not happy. I guess I'm satisfied, only slightly. I'll survive, but I won't thrive, not in this environment, and that's a problem.