Zoe Saldana recently told AFP, she believes Hollywood bullied Donald Trump. Once news of her comments got out, Twitter came for the Guardians of the Galaxy actress.
In the interview Saldana said: We got cocky and became arrogant and we also became bullies. We were trying to single out a man for all these things he was doing wrong… and that created empathy in a big group of people in America that felt bad for him and that are believing in his promises. Let’s start with the idea that Saldana believes Hollywood became bullies. President-elect Trump is the biggest bully out there. He spent the entire campaign and post campaign using a variety of bullying tactics at rallies, press conferences and other public appearances. Including mocking a reporter with a disability. If Saldana believes that Hollywood became “bullies”, they were simply fighting fire with fire. No sympathy on that one. The final part of that quote where she discusses empathy makes some sense. Like it or not, there is a segment of this country that believes the Trump rhetoric. That think he was the victim of unfair attacks by the media and Democrats during the campaign and those people, as unbelievable as it seems, were empathetic and sided with Trump. As poorly informed and misguided as they were/are, this particular segment chose to see Trump and themselves aligned as underdogs against the establishment. So Saldana isn’t wrong there. Twitter of course didn’t use nuance with Saldana’s comments and attacked the actress. See some of the reactions below.
There were other tweets like the last one and several comments centered on Saldana’s ethnicity. Saldana was born to an Afro-Dominican father and Puerto Rican mother. In addition she has Lebanese and Haitian roots. She is also married to a white man. For some Saldana is not black enough, or black at all. All these factors are at play when people critique her for saying anything that isn’t 100% pro black.
I don’t know Zoe Saldana, what kind of person she is, or what she truly feels about her black roots. I do wonder, is it helpful to question/attack her racial loyalty in this instance? She is not a Trump supporter, but did respond to a question about Trump in a way that was not pleasing to many that oppose Trump. Plus coming off the heels of Meryl Streep and other Hollywood celebs’ takedown of the President-elect, this answer doesn’t do much in the way of garnering support for Saldana. I am on the record as being 100% anti-Trump, and a Clinton voter, so before you get in my mentions, relax. Again, I am simply posing a question. What is the benefit of questioning Saldana’s racial loyalty as it pertains to her Trump comments? Unfortunately, I don’t have a good answer for that.
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1/10/2017 Solange in Interview Done by Beyonce on the Similarities Between Master P & Their DadRead NowSolange sits down with big sister Beyonce for a candid interview in February’s Interview Magazine. Long seen as the little sister to the Queen, Solange is a talented artist in her own right. Last year’s release, A Seat at the Table, solidified Solange as her own woman capable of delivering on the biggest stage.
The interview is fantastic and you can sense the bond these two incredibly talented women have. Both have tremendous love and respect for their parents and believe in family. Like all of us, they’ve gone through ups and downs. But, while they share DNA, you come away from the interview appreciating, seeing and understanding Solange as her own woman. One of the more interesting parts of the interview is Solange discussing the similarities between her and Beyonce’s father and Master P: SOLANGE: Well, I find a lot of similarities in Master P and our dad. BEYONCÉ: Me, too. [laughs] SOLANGE: One of the things that was really, really deep for me in talking to Dad is his experience of having the community choose you [as one of the first students to integrate his Southern elementary and junior high school]—to do that, to go out and be the warrior and the face of that is just such an incredible amount of pressure. And to evolve from that and still have your sense of independence and still have your stride and your strength, and to dream big enough that you can create something from the ground up bigger than any community, neighborhood, or those four corners … I remember reading or hearing things about Master P that reminded me so much of Dad growing up. And they also have an incredible amount of love and respect for one another. And I wanted a voice throughout the record that represented empowerment and independence, the voice of someone who never gave in, even when it was easy to lose sight of everything that he built, someone invested in black people, invested in our community and our storytelling, in empowering his people. You and I were raised being told not to take the first thing that came our way, to build our own platforms, our own spaces, if they weren’t available to us. And I think that he is such a powerful example of that. Whatever you might think of Master P, the founder and CEO of No Limit Records blazed a trail. He wanted to create opportunities and empower a community. There is certainly no back down in him, that’s the only way you can rise to the top and create something in the face of adversity. Matthew Knowles embodies much of that same drive, spirit and determination. He has passed it down to his daughters and they are blazing their own trails. Solange makes music her own way, in her own space. She is empowered. |
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