Social media is in a bit of a tizzy in attempts to understand how Whoopi Goldberg is set to produce and star in a new movie about Emmett Till and..if we really need the film at all. Contributing to the confusion, it seems Taraji P. Henson will not be apart of the project despite 2019 headlines and news of Taraji starring in a film dedicated to telling the story of Emmitt Till's torturous murder. Taraji was set to play the mother of Emmett and the project was slated to be directed by John Singleton, the Oscar-nominated director and screenwriter behind films like "Boyz n the Hood" and "Poetic Justice". Unfortunately, John Singleton transitioned before he was able to bring his vision to life.
Taraji discrepancies aside, do we really need this film?
A new term has came about to describe the overage of traumatic imagery we are forced to consume in the name of educating ourselves on our own history, often times with stories we already know, vividly: trauma porn. Here's more of what social media had to say:
The story of Emmett Till was catastrophic, horrific and haunting. One of the most troubling things about Emmitt's 1955 lynching is, how the tense racial circumstances surrounding his death are exactly the same in 2021. It's quite eerie how Black and brown people are being killed each and everyday in the same exact way as they were in 1955 when we didn't even have colored television. Everything else in the world, as we know it, has progressed significantly and astronomically. Tremendous technology upgrades, agricultural improvements, select substance legalization and decriminalization; yet and still the government or greater part of society has yet to LEGALIZE BEING BLACK!
Whoopi Goldberg, is set to play Emmett Till's grandmother, Alma Carthan, in the upcoming film directed by Chinonye Chukwu. Whoopi will be starring alongside Danielle Deadwyler, who was cast to play Mamie Till-Mobley, Emmett's mother. Here's what Whoopi had to say about the upcoming project:
“We have waited a very long time to bring this historically necessary important film to people, [...] And as we watch the repression of American History when it comes to people of color it makes it even that more important. I couldn’t be with better people: Fred, Barbara, Chinonye, Keith, Michael and Danielle.”
Well, what are your thoughts? Are you here for this Emmett Till movie with Whoopi Goldberg? Or would you rather see a different, more uplifting side of Black history presented on screen?