Jurnee Smollett-Bell Says Black People Shouldn’t Be Ashamed of Slavery

Photo Credit: Instagram
Photo Credit: Instagram

By: Amanda Anderson-Niles

Actress Jurnee Smollett-Bell takes her career seriously and she likes to go after roles she feels are powerful. Her latest role is in “Underground,” and it’s a TV show centered around slavery, but she doesn’t want people to dismiss it or label it as just another project on slavery.

In fact, Jurnee wishes black people wouldn’t be ashamed of slavery.

Click next for the details.

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15 comments

  1. *blank stare* We’re not ashamed of slavery. We’re tired of people making movies and TV shows based on it. It’s insulting for black actors to pretend they aren’t offended the only steady work they can get in Hollywood in 2016 is slavery stories.

  2. Ain’t she biracial? Anyway, I think we own our history. We’re just ready for different stories to be told. I mean how many more slavery stories do we need?

  3. I think this may have been directed to the people who have been saying they are tired of slavery movies, etc. But she has to step out her actress shoes and think about what the average black person is feeling. Right now we’re fighting for more diversity in Hollywood and we feel we have what it takes to do all kinds of movies and TV shows. I mean honestly making the same kind of movies gets really old real quick. I feel the same way about civil rights movies too.

  4. Get this bullsh-t out of here. Now I adore this young lady and her brother but she got to sit the f-ck down with this interview. Right now black people need to be uplifted. I don’t walk away inspired when I see two hours of black folks getting murdered and whipped. And the white media knows that sh-t too. To empower us, we need more roles that show us in positions of power. That’s why I f-cks with Nate Parker so hard. His Nat Turner movie is about to really get black folks thinking. And TPTB are afraid of that sh-t. So f-ck the traditional slave stories. They ain’t empowering us at all.

  5. Is the premise of this show the underground railroad? Anyway, I don’t think anyone who is black is ashamed of slavery. It’s just after a while all these stories start sounding the same. We need something new.

  6. You can’t be black and not own slavery. LOL. I need to check this show out. I heard it’s good.

  7. There’s alot about slavery surprisingly lots of black people don’t know. Hell even Nate Parker said he’d never heard of Nat Turner before making the movie. There’s a historical slave auction that took place in my home town during the 1850s that I’d never heard of until last year and it was never taught in the so-called Georgia history class that I had back during my middle school days. So I personally think it’s important to discover and tell the stories like Nate did with his movie so our kids won’t be ignorant to the history of black people and not only know the stories of slaves heroic or not, but also of the Kings and queens of Africa, and those who helped paved the way for is as a people.

    1. This*** there are a lot of untold stories of Black people that were not in our history books that we don’t know……I think JSB should’ve phrased it better because Black people own slavery….if we didn’t none of use would be talking about wanting reparations

    2. Agreed. There’s plenty of information that’s yet to be told about slavery that many people still don’t know. Hell, I didn’t even know that free northern blacks were routinely kidnapped and sold into slavery in the south until I saw 12YAS. I understand some peoples point that there needs to be more black stories told but I don’t have a problem with more slave movies and tv shows. Especially today since white people are literally rewriting the history books to make it seem as if slavery wasn’t “that bad.”

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