I totally understand all the points made here, & as based in reality as they are, they are in the way of progress bc based on law of attraction *that which you focus your attention on reflects back and gets even bigger, & again – that’s not to minimize any past or present injustices done by one race to another, though if you want to stay mired in the what was (slavery was real and she played the role well, if a movie was going to be made someone must bring realism to the role) so her winning an oscar, an honor, though not one I use to measure the quality of an actor myself – so she won and it’s because of ‘this n that’ by commenters (all under the umbrella of your own thought processes) then you will feel and keep receiving that message from whatever you see or read or watch, it’s your world view and that’s a drag bc you simply cannot escape or reshape for the future what you refuse to reshape now.

Again, I’m not minimizing racism, sexism, and -ism though I’m preferring to whip up change through consciously ignoring boundaries, called negative or positive by others, put in my own personal way…I think she’s doing that with her life as an actor, pleased she’s the new face of Lancome though again commentary about what’s ‘exotic’ is promoting more negative labeling, who cares if she’s attracted to roles with white dude, black dudes or Asian dudes or with other women for that matter, the racism eye is always going to attribute the relationship to exotiscism of her race/blackness and that to me – is part of the issue – creating boundaries for her that she may be trying to reshape by just being who she is…
Or it could just be my off world view, and I’m okay with that, too…I prefer offering no labels, kindness and forgiveness without those offerings all we’ll ever do is keep doing the judging, just my opinion and they’re like….everyone’s got one….
Thank you, Lola, and of course to everyone who comments here, it is a place of learned and diverse opinion.

Luv it and wouldn’t change a thing about it!

Not everyone has low self esteem or cares about Lupita’s color. In fact, almost everybody I hear thinks she’s nice looking and only mentions her shading to say how beautiful it is.

Lupita’s looks does not change the fact that she played a raped, maimed, and beaten and defeated slave in order to win an Oscar.

I seriously doubt she would have won an Oscar if she had played anything but a negative, pathetic role for black women. if she had played Harriet Tubman, I doubt she would have won a damn thing.

We would be found wanting. Truth is, we can’t win this war against black women if our own communitiy doesn’t value a black woman who looks like Lupita.

Instead we are more preoccupied with whether she gained acceptance from white people, in thier white media and their white institutions because it somehow “shows” that “we have value”.

If THAT isn’t white supremacy, I don’t know what is.

I mean, this win feels deserved (in contrast to Halle Berry in Monster’s Ball), but still feels like scraps from the massa’s table. Just sayin’.

The recent movie she played in was The Black Nativity, I believe. And what was her role…..yup a struggling single mom. The hole of our degradation is deep.

But we want to pretend that it isn’t because whites are “validating” us with crumbs off their table.