I’m still in disbelief. I’m doing research on this now to see how they even got this off
Wow I wonder if they had kids?
THEY HAD FOUR DAUGHTERS!!! I’m so mad I could spit! How dare Hollywood take away an actual opportunity for black women and children to shine!
HOLLYWOOD is ugly
This is actually more complicated than Hollywood whitewashing. Vivian Cash identified as white (Italian, specifically. Her maiden name was Liberto). There’s little doubt that she did have Italian blood, and probably other white European blood.
We can judge her for staunchly claiming to be white her whole life, but you have to remember that she married Cash in the 1950s in Texas, when interracial marriage was illegal. Then her husband becomes a country music star, the Klan sees her, and they are subject to threats and boycotts.
Her children have stood by her wish to identify as white. Even their famous child, Rosanne Cash, has not talked about her mother’s (and by extension her) assumed African ancestry (at least that I know of). They also didn’t complain that she was portrayed as white (just that she was portrayed as bitter).
Stories of white passing people (which by definition means of African ancestry) are a major part of American history, and they’re still mostly a secret. Living relatives often want to protect the wishes of their parents or grandparents, and in some cases, they believe that grandma was Dark Italian or Native American because there was a time when the truth put the family at risk.
The casting definitely altered the narrative. But it wouldn’t have been honest to write her as an identifying Black woman, either.
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