George Jones
Teddy Champion
African American Cinema
Pick a black female director or actress from the 1990s and discuss their career trajectory. How does her career path compare or contrast with black male directors/actors or white female directors/actors of the time period? (research outside of Bogle’s chapter may be necessary)
Angela Basset was and still is a very prominent actress in the black community. Although some people believe her performance to be a bit too much or too theatrical, she is respected by other actors and directors everywhere. The movie What’s Love Got to Do With it” jumpstarted her career and carried her to stardom, winning her an Golden Globe Award and a nomination for an Oscar. In the movie Basset shows that what strong of a woman she is and what Tina Turner had to overcome to get where she is. Julia Roberts was a famous female actress, they both had very successful careers, however when it comes to roberts, she didn’t have to fight to stay relevant as much as Basset or other black actresses.
Oprah Winfrey was an inspiration all over for young black women. She started off with a low rating talk program and overtime built an entire empire. A big reason I chose Oprah is because of everything she has been through, at an early age she was molested and raped by one of her older cousins, she talks about this in her mental heatlh series “The me you can’t see.” She opened up about her traumatic childhood, and I found it to be very inspiring. We can’t control the cards we are dealt, we just have to take those cards and learn how to fight for a better hand. She also happens to be my cousins god mother so I’ve actually gotten a chance to meet her and speak with her, briefly but it was really nice getting to see someone who I’ve looked up to for a long time. She fought for a new hand and won, in doing so she created generational wealth for her family.