Your body of work has shown me as an actress the true power that there is to be had in storytelling. Specifically in reforming the black narrative. You are meticulously using storytelling through your acting on screen to open society's understanding of the enslaved system bonding African Americans. With as much of a light as the one you have on your career, you have purposely chosen not to participate in blockbuster superficial roles that are merely there for entertainment. Being in the position that you are in goes beyond that.
The moves you are making in the film industry are real substantial in building a conducive space for holding such conversations on real-life adversities and hells that go untold.
Filming Just Mercy officially adds two films to your portfolio wherein you played a role based on the true story of a black man in the face of criminal injustice. In Fruitvale Station, you portray Oscar Grant and his last days before an altercation with the police at the train station brings his unjustifiable and untimely death. The repeating theme and issue here is police brutality and our injustice system.
How your films move though are not just in a bulldozer vehicle of the black narrative but rather you invite those on the other side of the equation to change their perception. This is displayed with the white cop in Just Mercy who we see invoke humanity by the end of the film. You don't give us another white savior like most highly accredited black cast films do, but you leave a space open for a man in the audience who realizes he has been operating in this nation's systemic racism to be like, "Hey that is me". You are not just pointing out problems within our society, you are offering a sort of solution. That is the magic your work creates in transforming the black American narrative and spreading black consciousness.
So many of us have dealt with injustice and it goes unresolved, unaddressed, and is left to fester. Before such films addressed wrongful convictions, and the discriminatory encounters with black people, I myself would never have been able to have a conversation with anyone of the very real reality this is that so many are living. Judges are in fact crooked, they give wrongful rulings and in turn, destroy families, one person at a time. Portraying the humanity that so many do not see given a history of the dehumanization of black people, it is crucial and such a key element in helping others step into the shoes of our oppressed people. It helps to foster a muscle of understanding that we can utilize when interacting in society that can allow programmed judgment to take a backseat. There is unspeakable magic to that!
Holding, and wielding such power is something you are using on a mission to change the black American narrative. Moving with the precision of a surgeon, everything we consume with your name on it has been a choice of yours amazingly so. The artist that I am is overwhelmed with such extraordinary work. Paying for viewing your films are indeed a payment of tuition because I am watching to learn something that has been deemed essential. Truly it is a payment of tuition for all viewers. You deliver stories intended to reflect issues of our society and ways in which it can be challenged, all through narrative. You, with the lens of the camera, are revolutionizing the image of black life one story at a time.
Sincerely,
Kayla Mary Jane
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