Yara Shahidi is this week’s WOC Wednesday honoree! WHOO!
Today, I’m honoring a very important person in the fight for racial and social equality, Grace Lee Boggs!
The Hunger Games and Sleepy Hollow star Amandla Stenberg is this week’s WOC Wednesday honoree because she laid down the gauntlet on those guilty of appropriating at the expense of the lives of black people.
It would make sense to make Constance Wu my WOC Wednesday honoree, since I’ve mentioned plenty of times how I’ve seen many similarities between her portrayal of Jessica Huang and my mom.
I will start the afternoon off on a happy note since the rest of the day will feature READING OUT THE WAZOO. The library is about to be open. But not before we check out Eva Mendes and her incredible style.
It’s #EmpireWednesday and we’re all gearing up for the 2 HOUR SEASON FINALE of one of the most explosive shows TV has seen in a long time. I would be a bit remiss if I didn’t highlight one of the biggest stars of the show and the show’s leading lady, Taraji P. Henson, aka Cookie Lyon.
Henson remarked during a screening of the first hour of the finale that during an interview with the Hollywood Foreign Press, no one mentioned that Empire is a black television show. Instead, they talked about human struggles shown on the show.
“Love and hate and loss has no color,” she said, states Variety. “For me, that’s what I was hoping this show would do. Martin Luther King, we made it to the mountaintop!”
I’m glad Henson is finally in a project that allows people to see her immense talent week-in and week-out. Her Academy Award nomination was no fluke; she’s always had the talent, and now everyone gets to see it.
What do you love about Henson’s acting career and Cookie Lyon? Give your opinions in the comments section below!
Photo credit: Chuck Hodes
Nichelle Nichols is such an icon for many reasons. Her Star Trek character Lt. Nyota Uhura is, of course, one of the few POC characters in sci-fi, but Nichols has also inspired countless black women and men to join the NASA program or live out their acting dreams (most notably, Mae Jemison, who saw Uhura as inspiration to become an astronaut, and Whoopi Goldberg, who has said many times how much seeing Nichols on TV as a kid made her believe she could make it in Hollywood).
This week, I’m honoring Jane the Virgin star Gina Rodriguez!
Rodriguez has stated before how she’s very adamant about picking roles that don’t exalt stereotypes of Latina women. She’s hoping that her work will be able to help change the game for Latinos who want to see themselves portrayed fairly in the media. As she said to Entertainment Weekly:
I would tell [people] there are two things that are important to me: changing the way Latinos are viewed in the indsutry and in media becuase the way I saw my culture was poor. Not poor like economically, but in a poor light. And that’s not true. I’m sitting here with two older sisters who are killing the game in their industry, and I don’t see that on TV. I don’t see them included in what’s in TV, on film. I want to make sure that every role I do contributes to that greater role. And I want to change beauty norms. I want to change the way people see beauty.
You can also see her discuss representation in the media during her Golden Globes acceptance speech. Hers was one of the best speeches of the night.
What do you love about Gina Rodriguez? Sound off in the comments section!
We all know Ava DuVernay should have been nominated for a directorial Oscar, but the Oscars sought fit to deny her what she’s owed. One anonymous voter even said that Selma didn’t have any art in it (paraphrasing).
