Monday, June 23, 2014
After the release of the, now trending, side by side photo of Aaliyah and Zendaya Coleman, many opinions fluttered surrounding the idea of Zendaya casted as Aaliyah in upcoming biopic. The most controversal opinion is that Zendaya is, “not black enough to play the role.” So I guess the new question here is, how are we measuring “blackness?” Clearly, despite what her father says ehem ehem- “she’ll bake in the sun,” that it is not by skin color because from the picture one can clearly see that their skin complexions are almost, if not, the same. So is it Because Zendaya happens to bi-racial, being half of Anglo-Saxon decent? I’m sure of it. Making fun of Zendaya and further perpetuating these non-sensible claims, TMZ posted this photo on their twitter page.
Don’t push it TMZ! You know that photo was unecessary!
TMZ also on that same day at LAX, caught Zendaya with her father. There she candidly states that being half black is enough to play the role… Good for you Zendaya!
So, at the end of the day it has nothing to do with how black she is. I think the only claim here that can be rightfully made is that she looks nothing like Aaliyah. This is my personal opinion, but I think that before one sees a film it has to be convincing first based on appearence. I guess I will just have to tune-in to believe it.