What Charlize Theron Doesn’t Get About Black Hollywood

[…]

In Hollywood, where even legendary filmmaker George Lucas had to fight and ultimately use his own money to get an all-black film (Red Tails) made, black actresses still struggle to find quality work. When they do, they are rarely cast as ideals of beauty or objects of desire

[…]

As well meaning as Charlize Theron is, she has no clue what it means to be a dark-skinned African-American woman whose beauty is seldom showcased in national commercials for perfumes or on mega billboards on Sunset Boulevard or even celebrated in the latest video by the hottest rappers

***

Ok, but what should be done then? Turn them into objects of desire as well? Are women supposed to be objectified? And is it better and more equal to objectify and Photoshop black women on commercials and billboards just like white women are ? Or should we have some critique about this consumer culture where women are things to owned and made money from instead of human beings with dignified lives? This type feminism is not revolutionary but it’s actually very pro-establishment, and capitalism can easily adapt to that. It does not weaken anything but instead empowers the current structures of the economy and the society. There has to be a wider critique of the institutions, otherwise we will end up embracing the same institutions and all of its tools that generate so many of the problems.

- Jahanzeb Hussain