Self Made (Netflix)

I’ve heard so much back and forth about the Netflix interpretation of Madam C.J. Walker’s story, so, of course I had to watch it and judge for myself.

If you haven’t watched yet, Self Made is a loose interpretation of the success of Madam C.J. Walker and how she became the first self-made female millionaire (holds the Guinness World Record as such). From her initial interest in haircare, to her family struggles, and her unwavering determination to make her dream come true, overall the miniseries is very inspiring.

If you don’t want spoilers… stop reading.

SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO the big issue here, at least from what I’m seeing in my world, is the battle of colorism displayed essentially from beginning to end of the miniseries between Madam (Octavia Spencer) and Addie (Carmen Ejogo). Now, let’s start with the fact that yes, this series does say “Inspired by the life of Madam C.J. Walker”, but focus on the fact that it says inspired by, and not based on. I’m also not getting any ideas that this was to be considered a biopic. Especially when choices were made to use made up character names for characters that may have been influenced by real people but were not based on those people’s real life story; for example Addie Munroe, whom everyone is automatically comparing to the real life Annie Turnbo Malone.

WITH THAT SAID, before people start spazzing because I’m playing devil’s advocate, LOL, I understand we as black women seem to always be used as examples without truly having our stories told to the tune of 100% fact and truth. This is a story about a real black woman that helped pave paths for the rest of us to become entrepreneurs and fought for black women to be heard to the same degree as our black men within our community.

So, some people (I don’t need to specify because we know who the different people are, LOL), may wonder why it’s such a big deal that colorism played such a huge role in the success of Madam in this miniseries. I understand being tired of being painted in a light of only reaching success because of other people being a catalyst or constantly being in competition with other black women… as if other black women are the only competition we could possibly have. Ha, what a lie that is!

The issue of colorism being displayed in this miniseries does not relate to the real lifeline of Madam and Annie’s relationship, no matter what that may have been, because Annie was of darker skin just as Madam was. Colorism is a very real issue… period. There’s no but behind that or excuse for why the issue doesn’t need to be represented and dealt with in the entertainment industry to shed light on it, but this story was not the best way to tackle that controversy. It takes away from the purpose of the telling the story of this outstanding BLACK woman that fought all odds against her and became a successful businesswoman. That added layer of finding her encouragement from self-esteem issues rather than emphasizing the fact that we can be driven to be success just because our dreams are worth that effort was so unnecessary, but I digress.

Now, in terms of the miniseries cinematic elements, I think the show is absolutely great! It’s definitely worth a watch and added support that telling untainted stories about successful black women should be a normal thing. Octavia Spencer does an amazing job in portraying the dedication and hard work that goes into entrepreneurial ventures, and not taking no for an answer. I feel she did a wonderful justice to the memory of Madam C.J. Walker and gave honor to her for being a trailblazer in times of misfortune and controversy. The plot was strong, the acting was authentic, and overall the imagery was breathtaking. I personally love period based pieces and enjoy being taken back to a time I would have loved to experience for the culture and knowledge. However, I did have to catch my breath with the styling decisions on how to portray the struggle of hair loss for Madam that catapulted her interest in hair care pass that seed initially planted by her barber brothers.

I also just watched “MA” not too long before watching this so Octavia’s kookiness had me twitching a bit from flashing back to her character Sue-Anne in that movie… definitely an interesting watch if you’re tempted to partake.

There were so many topics addressed in this miniseries that made it more contemporary also, from the focus on Lelia’s battle with her mother on procreating and marrying an upstanding man to take care of her, to the freedom expressed in her sexuality with being interested in women. I think sometimes stories are overrun with additives that aren’t needed because of the authenticity of the story itself, but I get the times we are in. That also speaks to the questions I have behind Dora Larrie (Sydney Morton) and her lighter toned skin… Did C.J. Walker really leave his darker skinned wife for a fair skinned “Walker Girl”? I tried to read up on it but didn’t find anything that specifically spoke to that, I just hate when those portrayals are handed out because they’re all different versions of the same story black women are constantly fed when it comes to love. Our men leave us because we’re always “too {insert adjective of choice}”. Black women get left because we work “too” much, we love “too” hard, we’re “too” passionate, we get “too” comfortable and let ourselves go, oh oh oh and the big one we get left for someone younger or more attractive because we’ve become “too” boring.

The world really doesn’t take a break from criticizing and evaluating us and the pieces that make us who we are…. so yea that portrayal of C.J.’s pride being hurt because he felt like he wasn’t being treated like “the man” of the house was a crock bull… and he got exactly what he deserved leaving his 80 for a 20 and then divorced her because the grass wasn’t greener on the other side like he thought.

But…we won’t go too far into that, LOL.

I would suggest watching Self-Made to form your own opinions and thoughts on the matter if you haven’t yet, and if you have I’d love to hear your thoughts, even if we’ve already spoken about it. Go check it out on Netflix!

Be D.O.P.E!

Series Release: March 20, 2020
Where I watched: Netflix