There was a fascinating statement that Actor, Viola Davis
made in the televised discussion of Black
Women in Hollywood where she alluded how Black writers often “image-censor”
their characters before pen is placed on paper, cautious of creating characters that might offend.
Her argument suggested what true art is – how it actually
becomes real through characters that are perfectly flawed and depicted through
the extensions of their blemished lives without excising the ugly imagery that
can tell powerful stories.
The exact statement that she made compelled me to think how
we, ironically as humans, equate perfection with beauty, thus if anything is
imperfect and flawed to the precision of our humanness, we are then ugly
misprints of our inevitable truths, deserving of shame, ridicule, and an
evasive cover up that strips away our substance.
The overall irony is, our flaws make us beautifully human,
as our flaws, issues, and mistakes connect us all with an inseparable need for each
other.