Not Simone Enough

     The New York times grabbed my attention this morning, but not because of the recent unrest in the Middle East or the current crisis within the European Union. Or the toe to toe slugging match between Mitt and Obama, although I must say Romney has a remarkably accurate propensity for shooting himself in the foot.
     Repeatedly.
     No. It was instead a little story on page seven of the arts section which caused my already unbalanced blood pressure to make a mild detour on my imaginary electrocardiograph.
     A new biopic chronicling the life of Nina Simone will star a young performer with impeccable credentials and acting chops named Zoe Salanda. You will recall her as "Uhura" in the latest re-telling of Star Trek and she has also been seen in "Pirates of the Caribbean" and "Avatar".
     The problem? Well, as activist and best selling author of "The Color Purple" Alice Walker has put it, this decision has re-ignited "colorism", her designation of discrimination based on gradations of color.
     As an over-weight white Anglo male living in the northeastern part of the United States, what I think about "gradations of color" does not really matter. I have never had to live with Jim Crow laws or had my life threatened because of my race.
     But I know one thing. I know the sound of Nina Simone's voice and her music cuts me to the quick.  And I also know her to be the very image of what whites considered a perfect example of the "negro race".
     Check out her song: "Mississippi". It stands head and shoulders above almost everything written by anyone about  discrimination - and it remains with "Strange Fruit." as one of most potent songs ever written.

     Every move of her head - shrouded with hair that many would consider "too short" and" too kinky" and every accusatory word that pours forth from those lips that many might consider "too big" bespeaks of a person who has caught the truth and will not let it go. In fact who would blame her if she beat it to death.
     But she would not. And them that would allow a woman, who is far lighter then Nina would, to play her  in an upcoming movies about her life should be ashamed and look a little further afield, for there are many actresses "of color" who could and should portray Nina Simone.
     Now some would say to me..."but George, come on, it's not the color. It's what she did - it's how she lived her life and banged those keys and sang in anger and justification that we should  be concerned with."
     But I say to you it is exactly that dark, dark color and those lips that sang, and those eyes that saw and those hands that attacked the key-board that should be celebrated, and not someone who fits into the sweet mold of light-skinned Hollywood's' interpretation of race.
     This is not a blog about acting, but about a word I used already.  That word is justification.
     Nina Simone was not a person who could instill peace of mind. She would not suffer fools gladly and her music always caught you off guard. Listen to her arrangement of  "Little Girl Blue". It will silence your soul.
     I hope that when the dust settles that the film story of Nina Simone will offer an actress of the deepest color and the deepest soul, for her life deserves that justification.

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