Matters of race will forever be an interesting topic to me. I will love and be frustrated by racial matters as it educates me and helps further shape my perception of others and the representations of myself.

I was reluctant to see the movie “Noah” a biblical remake of the popular story about the famous ark that withstood the destruction of the world. If you are a sensitive soul when it comes to religion, specifically the Bible and all its denominations, this may not be the post for you. I’m a pretty open soul and I only speak honestly regardless of people’s opinions. My mother wanted the family to see it together, so I joined in.

Interestingly enough, this version of the famous biblical tale added mythical creatures and antagonists to the plot, even turning Noah into a man who was willing to kill children to end the human race entirely.

But of course, as most biblical tales, there are almost if not any people of color in the supposedly true stories. And mostly all biblical stories produced by Hollywood somehow have the actors speak with British accents. The lack of people color further displays Hollywood’s refusal to include them in famous “true” stories like these.

Particularly the bible, where Christian deities are personified by White characters, you find statues, pictures, movies, illustrations all depicting White people, yet contrary to the descriptions and locations of these stories, you won’t see accurate depictions of these famous characters in color.

So it was no surprise that the co-screenwriter, Ari Handel stated:

“From the beginning, we were concerned about casting, the issue of race. What we realized is that this story is functioning at the level of myth, and as a mythical story, the race of the individuals doesn’t matter. They’re supposed to be stand-ins for all people. Either you end up with a Bennetton ad or the crew of the Starship Enterprise. You either try to put everything in there, which just calls attention to it, or you just say, ‘Let’s make that not a factor, because we’re trying to deal with everyman.’ Looking at this story through that kind of lens is the same as saying, ‘Would the ark float and is it big enough to get all the species in there?’ That’s irrelevant to the questions because the questions are operating on a different plane than that; they’re operating on the mythical plane.”

I personally find this to be a problem when people or people of Hollywood state that “race doesn’t matter.” Obviously it does if you chose the same type of people to glorify and pose as the poster children of America.

When they say “race doesn’t matter,” it tells me that “YOUR RACE DOESN’T MATTER.” Your race, your skin color and the representation of your kind is not important, it’s not something that will be acknowledged, not even if it’s been proven that human life began in Africa, ‘Adam and Eve’ will always be White.

I don’t understand how an all White cast can be stand ins for all people, as if they were chosen by default. The practice continues to exclude people of color, further giving people the idea that the people in these stories were all White. And if these stories are depicted as true, that creates an abundance of fallacies regarding the beginning of civilization of humans.

You’ll have folks like Megyn Kelly from Fox News telling little children that “Jesus is White. Adam and Eve is White. God is White.”

I no longer am moved or even interested to see stories like this because I am beyond convinced that Hollywood’s bias will never allow the accurate depiction of pivotal characters or stories be people of color —— especially if it doesn’t depict some negative stereotype. If they were to make Jesus Black, Cleopatra Black, the Egyptian Gods Black, or include people of color in these biblical and historical stories, the same folks claiming “race doesn’t matter,” would be posting racist comments or stating the depiction of these characters are invalid.

From religion, to the government, to monetary representations, when you personify these important elements to looking like a certain type of person, it speaks consciously and unconsciously to viewers. It gives us the idea of who is superior.

I urge people to not depend on Hollywood to educate you in matters like these but to research and find out yourself. A lot of deities were people of color, a lot of religions today have derived from ancient religions and tales where people of color were prominent in the personification of such.

My RACE DOES matter. I am not invisible. I will be seen.

Please be sure to check out this dope video about Kemet and Maat: Before Judaism, Christianity and Islam

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