Thread by @eBoPeep

The framing of @paularogo's @Essence piece on Cynthia Erivo is…interesting.

This response will be a long thread bc it's impt that:
◾️we step back to analyze the larger narrative that's being created ◾️Essence is aware that we're aware of deliberate editorial decisions.

https://twitter.com/Essence/status/1040706829393780738

And to expand on point about potential context: She might've even looked into the data or done a quick tally herself of prestige dramas (particularly historic fiction) to see what the breakdown is of non-African American Blacks portraying African-Americans over the last 10 yrs

…And the market parallels of Euro & Aussie actors taking advantage of US opportunity.

She might've even looked into the existing research to contextualize Cynthia's allusion to lack of opportunity for Black Brit women…

(Spoiler alert: Erasure of Black women in favor of mixed/biracial is very real in the UK and even more advanced than what's going on here.)

So if you got your plate of food stolen by someone else, I should let you come eat off mine, no questions? The plate of food that took 359 yrs of fixin' (lineage)? When all I have is my plate?

And smile and nod while you spit the bones in my direction?

Mmmmhmm. Okay.

I can empathize without self-sacrificing on the altar of sometime-y, convenient, generic Blackness.