DAILY DOSE OF HOPE – BLOG – NAIMA LETT
Quvenzhané is Annie. The Sun Is Coming Out!
LENT DAY 12 of 40, © NaimaLett.com/blog

© Quvenzhané Wallis at the 85th Academy Awards®

The sun’ll come out
Tomorrow
Bet your bottom dollar
That tomorrow
There’ll be sun!
–Tomorrow, “Annie” 1977

The sun is definitely coming out –
for Academy Award® nominee Quvenzhané Wallis.

The 9-year old, who made history as the youngest Oscar® nominee ever for Best Actress in a Leading Role, has landed the dream role of Annie in Sony’s upcoming remake of the 1982 twice-Oscar®-nominated film by the same name.

Will Smith and his wife Jada originally decided to produce Annie with Sony in 2011 as a star vehicle for their daughter Willow Smith, who was busy Whipping Her Hair back and forth. But it takes time to put a film together. And now, 2 years later, Willow (almost 13 years old) has apparently grown too old to play the 11-year old orphan Annie.

So Quvenzhané, has been tapped by the Smiths to carry the film, fresh off her mega-buzz, Academy nomination, and a bevy of signature puppy purses. Talk about dreams come true!

Hard-Knock Life

But Quvenzhané is also finding out that in Hollywood, all that glitters ain’t gold.

First, outrage trickled through social media as Oscar® red carpet reporters like Kelly Osbourne opted to call Quvenzhané (pronounced kwuh-VEN-zhuh-nay) “Little Q” or “Annie” instead of learning how to pronounce her real name.

Parenting contributor Sabrina James wrote a gripping piece yesterday explaining the rest of Sunday’s aftermath, “Quvenzhané Wallis, the C Word, and Our Loss of Innocence“.

James recounts how Oscar host Seth MacFarlane joked “about how it will be sixteen years before Quvenzhané is too old for George Clooney”, and how online site The Onion tweeted to millions of followers, “Everyone else seems afraid to say it, but that Quvenzhané Wallis is kind of a c*#t, right?”

I agree with James who wrote, “As if it wasn’t bad enough that she was sexualized in front of her peers during what was undoubtedly the most exciting night of her life, but to be further humiliated on a social networking site and called one of the most degrading terms that can be used toward women is reprehensible.”

Lord Forgive Us

What is the world coming to when we think it’s OK to call a 9-year old child such a derogatory term? I’m not trying to offend you, Fam, by including the language in this post, but I’m hoping you will be as repulsed as I am and cry out for this kind of behavior to STOP. The Onion’s president issued an apology after receiving tons of angry backlash, but MacFarlane and the careless correspondents ain’t apologizing. What if that was YOUR child?

Sometimes, all I can think is, “Lord, forgive us. We don’t know what we’re doing.”

Anybody have one of those moments lately? Where the folks around you, at your job, in your house, on your Facebook or Twitter have just gone straight alien, and you know they don’t know what in the world they’re doing. They’ve lost it. And you think, “Lord, forgive them”.

Jesus isn’t the only one who asked God to forgive His murderous offenders. I was going through Acts of the Apostles recently and was reminded that Stephen, who was stoned on Paul’s watch, did the same thing: “Lord, do not hold this sin against them!” Acts 7:58-60

I hope that somewhere in her little 9-year old world, Quvenzhané can bypass some of the bitterness that can result from holding grudges against idiots and simply say, “Lord, forgive them. They don’t know what they’re doing.”

Sun’ll Come Out

Hopefully, all of this will fade in the background as Quvenzhané prepares for her role as little orphan Annie for the big screen. Her parents are working hard to keep her life normal and grounded as she has filmed three other films since Beasts of the Southern Wild, for which she was nominated.

Hopefully, the sun will come out for her and her little God-light will shine. After all, she is noted as the only actor during this awards season to “thank God for all my blessings” in her acceptance speech at the Critics Choice Awards (“Winners Thank Harvey Weinstein 5 Times More Than God”), an article referenced by a friend.

Not that we can assume that everybody who thanks God in an acceptance speech is sincere, but she sure seemed like it. I’d say this little starlet is on the right path.

Onward & Upward,
Naima

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