On new York times, Ms. Lupito Nyong’o
and Trevor
Noah, the host of “The Daily Show,” at the Dutch in SoHo discussed diversity, political oppression and the #OscarsSoWhite.
They discussed the subtler challenges of
diversity, childhoods lived under oppressive governments but I am more
concerned about the things, Lupito Nyong’o had to say. Check it out!
LN: “In a film like “12 Years a Slave,” race is of the utmost
importance. But there are stories outside the race narrative that everyone can
participate in. But we don’t. It’s about expanding our imagination about who
can play the starry-eyed one.
We also have
to ask ourselves what merits Oscar prestige. Often, they’re period stories. And
for people of color, they end up being about slavery or civil rights. A
blockbuster won’t do it. Do I have to be in a big Elizabethan gown?
We’re at
this interesting moment when prejudice is in the subconscious a lot of the
time. Where prejudice occurs before you’ve even had a conscious thought. The
laws have changed, but now the battle is with the mind. And that’s much harder
to get to.
And change
only comes when the conversation is happening in all forms at all times. Not
just one tactic is going to do it. It’s got to be a convergence.
My parents
shielded us from a lot. It would be dangerous for us to know things because
then we could be a target. So they raised us with a semblance of normalcy.
There were times when we were under house arrest and couldn’t go to school. I
knew we were in a different situation than my friends.
Even when
things were out of sorts, my mother ran the house like always. You were in that
bathtub at 6; you were in bed at 7. I remember my father being gone for long
stretches when he was under house arrest. But I was optimistic enough to hold
onto my mother’s saying, “He’ll be back.” I wasn’t allowed to lean into it.
I was always
confident, but I shed my tears. They told me I was too dark for TV. But I came
to accept myself. And a lot of that had to do with Alek Wek, the way she was
embraced by the modeling industry. Oprah telling her how beautiful she was. I
was like, “What is going on here?” It was very powerful. Something in my
subconscious shifted. That’s why this conversation is so important — because it
burns possibility into people’s minds.
I used to be
teased and teased. They called me whack mamba, awful names.
Now they act like we’ve had it easy all our lives. I can’t help that my
face fixed itself.
You know what I gained? Compliments never
grow old. They’re delightful every time.
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