This probably isn’t breaking news for you, dear reader, but no two people are exactly the same, even if they share similar backgrounds. That’s why it’s doubly important to tell different kinds of stories, ensuring that people aren’t being treated like a monolith. And that’s very very true when it comes to telling Black stories. You have to use the whole board, and the move toward opening up new genres through which to tell these stories is absolutely leading to a lot of fantastic and thought-provoking results.
As our Obsessed hosts, Britt Ellis and Taylour Chanel, point out, it can be refreshing to see Black people adventuring in space, fighting in the Old West, or even being terrified in a horror film. They even cite The Foundation, The Harder They Fall, and Jordan Peele’s films.
After this reflection on Black genre storytelling, the pair welcome actress Jasmin Savoy Brown, who plays Taissa in Showtime’s breakout genre hit Yellowjackets. The on-the-rise actress talks about what it means to portray a queer, Black woman in media. Brown speaks on the safety of working on shows with a large female presence and the importance of her characters being allowed to do things like wrapping their hair before bed.
Check out the video above for more.