What Does It Mean to See Ourselves in the Finest of Garbs?

When Hollywood tells stories set in the past, racial diversity is often stripped from the tale. And even when Brown and Black characters do appear in period pieces, they’re often shown in subordinate roles to the starring white characters. Representation doesn’t mean everything; often, it is used to avoid doing the harder work of truly reckoning with all the ways in which oppression is woven into the foundations of our world. But there are still times when seeing yourself in stories from which you are generally excluded can feel like a shaft of light cutting through a forest of indifference…. Read Full Article