Whoop, Lupita Nyong, 31, won Oscars Best Supporting Actress award for her role as Patsy in the 12
years a slave movie.
On Friday, February 28th, 2014, mere hours before she snatched the Oscar for
Best Supporting Actress for her role in 12 Years A Slave, Lupita
Nyong’o delivered a powerful speech on the power of black beauty at a luncheon
for Black Women In Hollywood.
In the speech, Nyong’o took the opportunity to
respond to a small part of a letter a fan wrote her about the beauty of
being dark black:
“Dear Lupita, I think you’re really lucky to be this Black but yet this
successful in Hollywood overnight. I was just about to buy Dencia’s
Whitenicious cream to lighten my skin when you appeared on the world map and
saved me.”
What stands out about the letter is, on the one hand, highlighting the
challenge of being black in Hollywood and, moreover, being “this black.” Pause
and let your self think for a moment about what “this black” even means, and
what it’s like to receive a letter from a young girl who is basically trying to
get rid of her own blackness.
I don’t need to rehearse the history of black skin lightening and hair
straightening processes here, but what I do want to highlight is the importance
of having a black actress who has thought so closely about the beauty of being
dark black in predominantly white Hollywood.
So here’s how Lupita responded:
1. “I remember a time when I too felt unbeautiful. I put on the TV and only
saw pale skin, I got teased and taunted about my night-shaded skin. And my one
prayer to God, the miracle worker, was that I would wake up lighter-skinned.”
2. “And every day I experienced the same disappointment of being just as
dark as I had been the day before. I tried to negotiate with God: I told him I
would stop stealing sugar cubes at night if he gave me what I wanted; I would
listen to my mother’s every word and never lose my school sweater again if he
just made me a little lighter.”
3. “And then Alek Wek came on the international scene. A celebrated model,
she was dark as night, she was on all of the runways and in every magazine and
everyone was talking about how beautiful she was.”
4. “I couldn’t believe that people were embracing a woman who looked so much
like me as beautiful. My complexion had always been an obstacle to overcome and
all of a sudden, Oprah was telling me it wasn’t.”
5. “When I saw Alek (Wek) I inadvertently saw a reflection of myself that I
could not deny. Now, I had a spring in my step because I felt more seen, more
appreciated by the far away gatekeepers of beauty, but around me the preference
for light skin prevailed.”
6. “What is fundamentally beautiful is compassion for yourself and for those
around you. That kind of beauty enflames the heart and enchants the soul.”
7. “And so I hope that my presence on your screens and in the magazines may
lead you, young girl, on a similar journey. That you will feel the validation
of your external beauty but also get to the deeper business of being beautiful
inside. There is no shade to that beauty.”