Actor, Nate Parker On The Wendy Williams Show!

32 year old Nate Parker, Star of the new movie about the Tuskegee Airmen, Red Tails was on the Wendy Williams Show today where he shared that when he was in high school he was made fun of for his African features including his big nose, big lips, nappy hair and dark skin tone. We all know kids can be insensitively cruel to each other at that age, so it wasn’t surprising.

However, these are the same features he is being celebrated for now as a handsome actor. It’s amazing to see how much perceptions have changed over time. He said if people said you look African or you have African features then, it was perceived negatively because the images people saw about Africa on TV at that time was malnourished people with flies walking all over them. We all know that he is telling the truth thanks to National Geographic and Aid organizations projecting such pity inducing images of Africa in the West to get money for their operations. Not that such images don't exist, but they certainly don't represent the whole of Africa. That's just like representing all people in the US with some tore up looking crack heads in some American cities. I thank God that things are changing and Africa is slowly but surely being represented correctly and holistically in the world wide media.

However, my only concern is that he is a victim of what usually happens to so many people who have been made fun of as children for their African features including Wayne Brady. They attempt to get as far away as possible from those features that they were teased about by marrying outside of their race, so at least their children and the spouse they look at daily doesn’t remind them of those features they were traumatized for having.

In Nate’s case he is married a Caucasian woman and he has 3 biracial girls to show for it. I know he probably doesn’t think that’s why he married who he did, but it may have played a part in it. I don’t fault him for this since such negative experiences traumatize people at a deep psychological level that they are often not even cognitively aware of how wounded and psychologically traumatized and damaged they are. So what he did is to be expected and he's definitely not the only one. 

I also appreciate that he was on the Wendy Williams Show, which is hosted by an African American woman because the show gave him the format to even express his experiences. Had he been on a show hosted by a Caucasian person, he may not have felt comfortable enough to share on that part of his life’s experience.

All I can say to Nate is what I tell every other black person I meet which is, “Your Black Is Beautiful!!” Also, everyone, please go out and watch the movie Red Tails, so Hollywood will be encouraged to make more movies starring all black casts.