The recent controversy involving the making of the bio-pic of Nina Simone’s life takes me to the time of the brown paper bag test. As absurd as it sounds, college Black sororities and fraternities once compared the skin color of its applicants to a brown paper bag as part of its requirement for admission. The darker you were in comparison, the less favored. Zoe Saldana, through no fault of her own except ambition, is caught in a color battle that has pitted Simone fans of a past generation to those who only know her through legend. More importantly for me it is the renewal of a controversy, that for me dates back five decades.
My mother was very fair-skinned, with red hair and a face full of unconnected freckles. She was born in the forties and favored by men of the fifties. I am the result of one of these favorings. Throughout out the fifties, sixties and into the late eighties the glorification of the light-skinned Black, remained true in most of my communities. Terms like good hair, sharp features and pretty skin were routinely used as both a compliment and a put down. Nina Simone with her pearly black skin, large convincing eyes and smooth raspy voice made it possible for young dark girls to have a hero.
I do not want to fall into the same traps of intra-racial bigotry of the past, but for a Hollywood accused both now and in the past of racial insensitivity and bias, Saldana was an odd choice. From having to colorize her with dark hued make-up, a prosthetic nose and a ‘nappy’ wig, this is a slap in the face of all the working and able Black actresses who would play the role with natural appeal and grace. As for me, Saldana is caught in a whirlwind of her own choosing but as Simone said in “Four Women” I am all the colors of the rainbow.