Back When the Big, Loud Monkey was Beautiful; The brilliance in Leslie Jones' SNL skit

Last week, a newcomer to the longstanding launch-pad for scores of great American comedians Leslie Jones, debuted her fierce, comedic intellect during Saturday Night Live's Weekend Update segment.
Under the guise of a humorous, Sapphirical diatribe, the beautiful, and sickeningly funny Leslie Jones, used satire to expose an issue often spoken about among Black dens, living rooms, and dining rooms across America, but rarely in public -- An issue non-Black America is oblivious to; the world's discarding of the notion that the everyday "Sista" deserves a spot, or even "honorable mention," on any media platform associated with beauty and desirability.



In response to the world's white-led, public embrace of The Diaspora Soul Sister, the beautiful Lupita Nyong'o, Jones suggested that if instead of a "most beautiful" list, there were a "most useful" list, Lupita and the world renowned tribe of other beautiful people, might have to reconcile a nasty role-reversal which could leave them gagging.



"If you walked in a club and saw me and Lupita standing at the bar, who would you pick?" Leslie asked her co-star, whose facial expression, and grunt implied Lupita.

"But let me ask you this, if you was in the parking lot and three crips was 'bout to whip your ass, who you gon' pick then?"



"I would pick you!"



"You damn right..."

Jones continued to brilliantly open the drapery of the window America perpetually avoids peering through, revealing the ugly truth that the world's perception of beauty has changed, forcing everyday Sistas to the periphery, where they shall HOORAH for the "conventional beauties," knowing that they shall never be among them. And, if their daughters should happen to bear enough resemblance to them, that they too will likely face the horrors of navigating a world which cannot recognize the value their kind of beauty.

Toward the end of her skit, Jones ruffled the feathers of sensitive Black America, and conjured discomfort among guilty whites, as she twirled a historical truth in our faces like a tornado -- Sistas who looked like her were, indeed, bred to make strong babies, and that during these times, they seemed to have been valued more than today, rarely ever denied love or relationships because of their African features. 

"The way we view Black beauty has changed. Look at me, see I'm single right now. But back in the slave days, I would have never been single. I'm 6' tall, and I'm strong...I'm just saying that back in the slave days, my love life would have been much better. Massa would have hooked me up with the best brother on the plantation, and every nine months, I'd be in the corner having a super baby."

Now, among the severely offended was Ebony Magazine Senior Editor Jamilah Lemieux, who went on a bullying, judgmental, emotionally charged rant against Jones, proclaiming that Jones should be ashamed of herself, and calling her an embarrassment.

And get this... 

Lemieux was SO offended at the inappropriateness of Jones' skit, that she punished her by using one of the most offensive, racist terms in American history to describe her, saying on Twitter that Jones was as acting like a "Big, loud, monkey!"

A MONKEY!!



Yup, a senior editor at of one of the world's most prominent Black magazines -- one charged with inspiring and informing Black people, used her position to publicly humiliate another Sista simply because SHE didn't like her skit!


Now, I'll be the first to admit that it is quite easy for me to understand how any Black person could have found Jones' skit distasteful or even offensive, but Lemieux publicly "Phaedra Parks'd "Jones, with no remorse and no tact, disregarding Jones' new accomplishment as one of the Black women chosen to diversify the SNL cast; threatening her career and her livelihood to make position her personal opinion as the one the world should subscribe to.

But many of us don’t. Many of us, educated, professional, high-achieving, well-informed Black folk are not offended by Jones’ skit. And, more importantly, if we were, we would understand that as it is our moral and intellectual rights to do so, it is also the rights of those who feel differently to feel as they do; After all, we are more than a one-dimensional people, right?  

The Sad Reality

Many Black Americans are locked into such a deep courtship with slavery, that we often miss opportunities to grow from targeted, substantive conversations around the slavery experience.  And if anyone should be able to openly discuss slavery without the depression that we presume should be the crux of the conversation, shouldn’t it be a Sista? 

The Critical Messages in Leslie's Skit



Embedded within Jones’ skit were profound social and cultural messages that many of us missed, because of our marriage to the emotionalism within the slavery talk. 

While Lupita is, indeed, outrageously beautiful, Jones attempted to convey that hundreds of years ago, she too, would have been perceived as beautiful and equally as worthy of a loving, fulfilling relationship.



And while Lupita's beauty is truly undeniable, it is not so unique in the Black community. In fact, she is one among millions of beautiful, dark-skinned, Black women deserving of their kind of beauty being folded into the larger perception of beauty in the United States, and in the world.

To be real, real, a stroll up or down the streets or roads of any neighborhood, in any city, in any country in the world where there are Black folks, will reveal hundreds of Lupita's -- HUNDREDS! 

But the epic failure in our society, specifically among the Black men and  women who love Sistas, is that, among these hundreds of Sistas, including some who may be reading this article right now, are scores of Black women who continue to be called Black (as a negative term), ugly, fat, nigger, nappy-headed, hoe, bitch, freak, and baby momma (rather than wife).

So, as People Magazine reveres our beloved Lupita as The Most Beautiful Person in the World, inclining the world's top designer's to adorn her in their most fabulous gowns, hats, shoes, and jewels, REMEMBER that it was just months ago that fashion activist Bethann Hardison, along with Naomi Campbell, was forced to publicly call many of those same designers out for refusing to book black models.  

While it is definitely understandable how the skit offended so many, as Black people, we must begin to push beyond the emotionalism embedded in  the slavery talk, and find the brilliance in Jones’ skit.

The fact is that Leslie Jones gave a voice to the tall, nappy, natural, full-lipped, full-figured, dark-skinned Sista, who is perpetually left off of the world’s beauty spectrum. Jones used comedy to tell their side of the story from a perspective common among marginalized Sistas. And although these Sistas are the ones teaching our children, singing in our choirs, preaching The Gospel, driving our buses, running their own televisions stations, running our cities, performing surgery on our bodies, arguing our cases in courts, and serving as First Lady of the most powerful country in the world, we've allowed too many of them to become invisible to the eyes of the world. 
In truth, they will likely never grace the cover of People Magazine, and rarely ever have graced the cover of Ebony Magazine. 


Leslie Jones deserves our support and our love as she continues to break down barriers and stimulate the hard talks that may possibly change the world. 

Derrick Watkins is a writer and photographer living in Baltimore, MD. His work is currently on exhibition at the Delaware Center for Contemporary Arts, and will be until June 15, 2014. Check out more of his work or contact him at... 

www.dwphotographyandcreative.com