In 2014 the film 12 Years a Slave, won many awards and was in the spotlight for months after the film launched last 2013. Actors Lupita Nyong’o and Chiwetel Ejiofor were constantly in the news along with director Steve McQueen.
In February 2014 the film won Best Motion Picture in the Drama category at the Golden Globes. Chiwetel Ejiofor won Best Leading Actor at the BAFTAs where the movie also won the Best Film award.
Lupita Nyong’o won Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Supporting Role at the Screen Actors Guild Awards. On her birthday (Saturday 1 March), Lupita won an Independent Spirit award and then the next day she won an Oscar for Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role. It was awards central for the 12 Years a Slave cast and crew.
Lupita Nyong’o has taken the world by storm since the release of the Oscar-winning movie. Her presence in the media and on red carpets is like a beacon of hope for black people. Lupita has reminded black folks that our black is truly beautiful and we love her for it.
When is a pun not a pun?
It’s so sad that black people continually need reminding of our natural beauty but it’s understandable that we don’t think highly of ourselves when news headlines continually seek to put us in a place we vacated a long time ago. Take this headline for instance.
What an offensive play on words. Why did the writer think it was necessary to shorten the movie title? I’m being generous by saying that they shortened the movie title, in reality, this title was a big slap in the face and they probably knew what they were doing.
What about this headline? “‘12 Years a Slave’ escapes with top Oscar“. An escaped slave, get it? This is the worst and most offensive play on words I’ve seen in a while.
Both these headlines were changed after people protested on social media. Why do journalists have to wait to be told that a headline may contain racial triggers? I personally think they set out to offend and cause outrage to attract readers to their site; this is why I appreciate it when people just take a snapshot so I don’t have to visit the offending site. We need to learn not to visit offending websites and hit them in the pocket.
Here we were celebrating the beauty that is Lupita and there they are reminding us of why movies like this still need to be made.
