Should a Biracial Actress Have Portrayed Harriet Tubman in “Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter”?
by Yvette Carnell
In a recent article, I made the case that Tubman shouldn’t have been portrayed by biracial actress Jaqueline Fleming:
I have nothing against actress Jaqueline Fleming, the actress who portrayed Harriet Tubman in “Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Slayer”, except that she doesn’t look a thing like the real Tubman.
And:
To contract a biracial woman to portray a darker skinned black woman is actually racist since the act itself is based on white supremacy. Not only should Fleming never have been cast in the role, she should’ve never shown up for the casting call. To do so was to dishonor Tubman, and so Fleming bears some responsibility in this as well.
But writer Kola Boof hits notes in her assessment that I find both interesting and spot on:
HARRIET TUBMAN…. is portrayed as “BIRACIAL” in the new
“Abe Lincoln Vampire” movie….TO ME….you have to really *HATE* Black people to portray Harriet Tubman as a Biracial woman. It reveals everything about White Supremacy and the “erasure” of Black People.
Harriet was NOT Dutch-speaking or Biracial. And this portrayal is really a “Betrayal” ….it does not honor her image. It OBLITERATES not only Harriet, but all Authentic Black Women.
She continues:
(1) This is why millions of African teenagers are now Bleaching their skin.
(2) This is why Black women (no matter how beautiful) are being degraded and considered “not good enough”…
(3) This is why Black people are losing their authenticity and their soul.
(4) This is why no one respects Black people—we never defend the honor of our own ancestors. We are letting Harriet Tubman literally be DEBASED in public like a joke—her image is being dishonored and betrayed as we sit by and say nothing.
(4) We never speak up…so we keep getting these Racist images that ERASE us thrown back in our faces. Black women especially are so stupid not to speak up & raise h**l about this *constant block-out*.
PLEASE everyone…
Call & write: BEKMAMBETOV PROJECTS LTD. 11600 Dona Alicia Place, Studio City, CA 91604
PHONE: 818-755-0640 *Email: kathy@bazelevs.com
There’s certainly a lot of truth to that. Black people bear much of the responsibility in this.
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The movie was a fictional film that was rated poorly, but they did have Lincoln dress and look the part, so they should have had Tubman as a dark skin woman. I understand how Hollywood movie’s can have negative impact on Black people then again this is a fictional film about vampire’s, now if it was her Biography and a serious story then I can probably be upset as well. I haven’t seen the movie yet…Let’s give Hollyweird their wet dream’s!
racism again assciated history w/ a eurocentric bait and switch. same shyt diffnt day, vampirism is a outline projection of white powerrape culture too. don’t feed your children this garbage
“The movie was a fictional film that was rated poorly, but they did have Lincoln dress and look the part, so they should have had Tubman as a dark skin woman.”
Don’t you mean “they should have had Tubman dress and look the part”? If you LOOK at the Lincoln actor’s face, he no more looks like Lincoln with his big ears/nose and craggy face than the Tubman actress looks like Tubman. But stick anyone in a stovepipe hat, a long coat, and give him that beard – instant Lincoln! They sell that costume in halloween shops, fer crying out loud. Drunk frat boys will know it’s Lincoln.
What if the Tubman actress were dressed as we think of Tubman – headscarf, shawl, covered up? I, for one, am unwilling to say only very dark skinned women are competent to portray Tubman, and that only very dark skinned women are entitled to the opportunity to have the experience of portraying such a powerful woman.
Has nobody else noticed, nobody is posting images of Tubman from the movie? Every time this is discussed, we get the historical Tubman image, and a modern headshot of the actress in modern street clothes. THAT is far more marginalizing – to remove the character’s image from the debate so intimately involving her.
Only a d**n fool would think its okay to portray Harriett Tubman as is biracial woman. Harriett Tubman was a dark skinned woman PERIOD! Yes dumb a$$ movie but still portray correctly, h**l you might as well have a tanned white woman, and only someone not Black would see no problem with this. It’s hard enough to see dark sisters in movies anyway as if biracial, light skinned, or white is some marker of beauty, h**l I think not. Unless I missed something, just because she was a powerful woman,doesn’t mean they have to change her whole d**n complexion! I’m a black woman and I ‘m proud my black sisters from creme to mahogany, BUT stick to historical correctness, this has NOTHING to do with competency. Black women period need to be seen more on the screen. And need I say Cleopatra, loved Elizabeth Taylor but …… Really? Historical correctness.
Listen, Abraham Lincoln was not a vampire slayer and this is not real. Furthermore, her feature are kind of like Tubman’s, she is just lighter. If they got a darker skinned person, someone would complain about the person being too dark. Shut up and fight for real injustices.
Why is it so awful for a dark skinned black woman to play a dark skinned black woman? Why not just skip a black woman altogether an have Drew Barrymore play her? It worked with Cleopatra.
I am late to this but…if the actress was let’s say Vanessa Williams (former miss usa or america) would it have been better? She is light yet not biracial. Why include the biracial part?
I’m really late too, but I wanted to say that Ms. Tubman DID speak Dutch. Her first owners were Dutch and when she was sold, she was beaten because it was the only language she knew and her new owners got angry at her for it.
How is having a biracial woman playing Tubman a degradation? Harriet Tubman wanted freedom and equality. What expresses this more than a biracial person? Equal parts of black AND white, working together in perfect unison. Historically accurate? Absolutely not. However, I don’t think it was meant as an insult either.