I always liked Amandla Stenberg. As Rue from The Hunger Games, she was convincing, sweet, strong and cute. Her beauty was and is both striking and comforting. So when she blossomed into what appeared to be an intellectual and activist, she seemed a stroke of hope for the post-millennial generation. But in hindsight, I see that I was supposed to feel this way. Stenberg, functions as a mulatto cast to play both sides— to reel in black woman convincing us that she is “one of us”—to convince us that we are seen, heard and thereby represented. Stenberg is a strategy of the white world–designed to do exactly what she’s done –change up when we’re not looking.
Therefore, it seems only fitting that her first starring role feeds the contemporary fascination with interracial romance and biracial women. What makes the feature a tad more interesting is that Everything, Everything, a film designed to pollute the young black female’s mind with thoughts of interracial romance, is an overt product of black women. Namely, the book is written by Nicola Yoon, a black woman of Jamaican descent, and the film is also directed by Stella Meghie—a black woman. The black female presence associated with the film is undeniably a plot of the western world designed to validate the portrayal of a young black woman in her coming-of-age tale by suggesting the ones pulling the strings are black women themselves. This however is false, because the depths of systemic oppression program the black psyche solely with self destructive thoughts and images. It also imperative to note that the black author and producer, much like Stenberg, value visibility over the quality of portrayal. Their role is not to incite the masses to change the world, but to convince an oppressed people that the antidote to their cyclical disenfranchisement is opening their heart to a white man. Thus, the “everything” referenced in the film’s title has little to do with the actual story and everything to do with the carefully selected ingredients mixed together to feed the black female collective a poisonous cake designed to diminish the power of black love.
Amanda Stenberg, stars as Madelyn (Maddy), in the film adaptation of Nicola Yoon’s novel Everything, Everything. The novel and film function as a nuanced Rapunzel, where the sheltered princess longs to know the world beyond her window after falling in love. The twist on this age old story is that “Rapunzel” does not have long blonde hair, but 4a curls, because Rapunzal is a biracial black girl. The film predictably ends with the princess running into the sunset with her white prince—freed from her controlling mom—the story’s villain.
The film is an interesting “coming out” film for young actresses Amanda Stenberg, who in recent years has become a sort of contemporary activist. Her 2015 Youtube video “Don’t Cash Crop on my Cornrows” made waves for calling out white appropriation of black culture. Despite its resounding and well articulated thesis, Stenberg’s purpose was lost to many that could not get past her straight style worn during the video. These days Stenberg is natural and has seemingly traded in her processed locks for a processed mind. As the star of yet another means to incite interracial romance between white men and black women, Stenberg, a body that once seemed an ally to the black female plight to liberation, is now being used against us—a pattern entirely to familiar to the black collective. Namely, Stenberg as the film’s protagonist— a “kind of” black girl “freed” by a white man, paints her previous acts as reactionary not revolutionary. Her current actions are undoubtedly ones of survival, but demonstrate that she wishes not to be the artist but the art—open to be molded and interpreted as desired.
In the film, Maddy tells her beau that “I cannot think when I am around you.” To which her white lover states “Thinking is over rated.” This bit of dialogue was most likely an attempt at wit, but unveils the true nature of interracial dating. To date outside of your race is to suspend yourself into a thoughtless state, where the same subconscious inundated with ideas of black inferiority guides your body to America’s fictive prince.
The Maddy’s mother, Dr. Pauline Whittier, (Anika Noni Rose) is perhaps the most fascinating character in the film. After losing her husband and son in a car accident, Pauline shields her daughter from the cruel world by confining her to their house. Pauline is a wealthy doctor who has the means to craft this fictive world where she controls with whom her daughter interacts. The mother is portrayed as obsessive and delusional— attributes that are not untrue but incorrect in application. She is not mentally unstable for attempting to shield her daughter from the hurt she believes exists in the world. She is mentally ill for misunderstanding the depths of her oppressed state. As a wealthy and accomplished professional, it seems the mother either forgot or perhaps was never aware of how white supremacy hypnotized her into believing her conventional success alleviated her status as a white supremacist victim. The world was not its most cruel in seizing her loved ones, because the sole promise in life is death. The world was cruel in nurturing this black woman to fall in love with this white man and conversely fall out of touch with the world around her. In the end, the mom shields her daughter from the world, but can not shield her daughter from herself. Namely, Pauline still manages to breed her daughter in the image of her subconscious enslavement. Just as she sought to free herself from the cage of blackness, her daughter was simply not fulfilled in the world of black femininity where just she and her mother co-existed.
The film portrays black femininity as the dark, lonesome, restrictive tower to which Rapunzel is confined in before setting eyes on her prince. Similar to Ariel in The Little Mermaid’s wish for legs when she sees humans on the shores, when Maddy sees pale skin and straight hair she eventually develops a longing to be where the white people are, for even her latin caretaker’s olive skin and dark hair does not supplement the desire to pale skin and blonde hair.
Color plays an interesting role in the film, as the fictive prince dons nothing but black and our unconventional princess wears nothing but white-to illustrate the dichotomous desire of the film’s protagonist to be in each other’s worlds. This aligns the film with the teachings of the late Dr. Francis Cress Wesling. For example, Dr. Wesling asserts the following in The Isis Papers:
Acutely aware of their inferior genetic ability to produce skin color, whites built the elaborate myth of white genetic superiority. Furthermore, whites set about the huge task of evolving a social, political and economic structure that would support the myth of the inferiority of Blacks and other non-whites.
In short, the black plight to an illusive whiteness operates as a means to distract blacks and keep them consumed with a fictive inferiority. By programming the black psyche to internalize a fictive inferiority, whites remain free to bask in racial envy–desiring to be like those who they’ve hypnotized to be what they do not even want to be: themselves. Thus, it is not Olly that saves Maddy but Maddy who saves Olly. Notably, Maddy enables Olly to exist in a fictive superiority by way of binary opposition. What is a prince without a princess? What is good without the bad? Up without a down? Black without white? Or power without the powerless? Freed from the protection of her mother, Maddy is free to take her place as the back for which her white lover will stand for the duration of their relationship.
In totality, the film incites a series of images depicting binary opposition as producing “a happily ever after,” simultaneously luring the contemporary slave back to the plantation with the promise of romance.
Whispers of a Womanist 
@ whispersofawomanist
I think that white Hollywood is trying to push an agenda of interracial dating among biracial women & non black men. I’m seeing more movies & commercials with biracial women & non black men as couples. The media is pushing interracial dating toward black women but there main target is biracial women.
I disagree. Mainly because biracial is not a race and these biracial people, like Amandla play black roles and thereby assume the literal and figurative role of “black Woman.” Also, Serena,Zoe,Tika, and the countless popular youtubers like Gabe Flowers, Nikki Perkins and Patricia Bright are black Woman married to white men. All of whom have a high following of black Woman like themselves.
Black power or black love is the threat, making biracial romance severely less threatening and perhaps more predictable. The goal appears to be to get fertile black women to dilute their genetics and produce less fertile and less melanated off spring of white men to slowly ween off the more fertile and genetically dominant blacks. Dr. Cress-Wesling talks about this in The Isis Papers namely with the Color Confrontation theory. Whites desire color, and the bearers of this jewel are Black non-biracial humans.
Thank you for your comment.
C.C. I agree 100% the term Bi-Racial as well as all of the other racial classifications are nothing more than white supremacist terminology meant to confuse the victims of racism white supremacy. I hear there are even more new classifications on the way, I guess we have new races. I love the reference to Dr.Frances Cress Welsing, her theory is proved everyday. I couldn’t help but think of Chancellor Williams’s “The Destruction of Black Civilization as I read. Chancellor Williams talks a lot about the “Tragic Mulatto” and how the white supremacist have used them to undermine the black collective. I can only bare witness to my own confusion growing up as a black male in a black hating, white supremacist society and the confusion of black people in general under the system of racism white supremacy, that come from two black parents. That being said, I believe the confusion the non white that comes from one white parent is even greater than the confusion of us that come from two black parents. Unfortunately, I have quite a few family members who have one white parent and seeing the confusion and conflict it produces is hard to watch. Your comment “Black power or black love is the threat” made me think of the book “Black Love is a Revolutionary Act” by Umoja which I agree with, as evidence by the fact that the white people who practice white supremacy relentlessly attack the black family structure. I would go even further to say, Black Self Respect is a Revolutionary Act too. Excellent movie analysis!!
I’m so upset at you CC. How dare you destroy the credibility of this film….before I could.lol
I knew when I saw the trailer this film was garbage. And I agree that al these biracial women are standing in for black women. They want the womb of black women. Black people are the oldest people in the planet. We have the oldest genetics and the highly coveted melanin. These melanin recessive beings know we are the original hue-mans and they are mankind(kind of man).
Films like this are designed to fool us into mating with oppressors. You and I have discussed this countless times before. I also like the fact that you brought up the black women involved in the film. You’re correct that these black women are not pulling the strings. This is all smoke and mirrors. This is racist propaganda at its finest. Nothing but an anti-black love,self loathing film disguised as a romantic film. I’m so sick of Hollywood and their mind games. I hope our people stay away from this film.
I’m also hip to what Amandla is about. A few years ago she came out as bisexual. I don’t believe her to be honest. I think there’s an agenda at play. They’re using these young black and biracial actors to confuse young people about their racial identity and sexuality. Jaden Smith is also helping push this agenda. He and Amandla just happen to be good friends. What a coincidence right? I’m not buying it.
Thanks for this great analysis.
How do we really know what’s going on in Hollywood? Who is friends with who in “real” life? Sadly, they use the impressionable, pretty, popular kids to push whatever sick trends they want.
They’ve had many years to perfect their propaganda. They know exactly what they’re doing. They love to play mind games with black people. Luckily the consciousness of our people is rising. We are not so easily fooled anymore.
Yes! We can’t keep wasting our time and money being fools.
Exactly! Play time is over!
Lol!!!!!! Thank you Prince. Yes, everyone wants what we have so they try to poison our minds. I don’t think enough people are engaging this critically to be honest. I’m afraid post millennials will be all about the swirl.
I agree C.C unfortunately I see a lot of young black teenage males and females walking around like zombies with the oppressors teenagers. I fear for our youth they are really lost and confused. As black people we really just do not spend enough time studying white people and this is a real dilemma because white people are constantly studying us. I noticed that sports and sporting events confuse black people, especially young black people. They think that the white people cheering them on really love them, nothing could be further from the truth, historically whites have always enjoyed being entertained by their Niggras, and as your analysis clearly articulates, whites really want to be us and they hate us because they are not. Likewise the whites cheering for their favorite plantation Bucks are living through the black body at that moment. We really need to teach our children about the behavior patterns of whites. White people will smile at you for no reason, my theory is they do this to gauge how confused their victims are, whites can sense when their victims are becoming less confused about the the system of racism white supremacy, they constantly monitor us. I was out over the weekend and there were several black women that came and sit near a white family. The white man who was with his wife and family was paying close attention to these black females, even adjusting his body position so that he could get a better surveillance of them. I don’t think he was admiring them he had a appalling look on his face. What was more shocking to me was the black females oblivion that they were being heavily monitored, they were busy with their heads buried in their cell phones like robots taking selfies and completely clueless to their environment and the fact we are surrounded by enemies who can and have done us harm. Unfortunately C.C the millennials are all about the swirl and the black collective is not displaying in our behavior any type of understanding or awareness that white people have never been our friends and never will be, what white people have done is refine how they practice racism, which has produced the desired results from black people, by evidence our guards have been dropped.
That scenario is cringeworthy and all too familiar. I’m not sure if you’re a millennial or not, but the black collective, the post millennials in particular are lucky to have you!
I am a part of the group that would be identified as Generation X, born in 73. I had a lot of hope in the millennials and post millennials, they were supposed to be the enlightened beings and Indigo star seeds, I have not seen evidence of this yet unfortunately and I am still waiting. After reading your review, I watched the trailer to Everything, Everything and then I thought of the popular soap opera The Young and the Restless in which the very few blacks that are featured in this show are so racially ambiguous that one would have a very hard time identifying them as black. As if that wouldn’t be confusing enough, all the so-called black characters most who have at least one white parent are extremely white identified, from the book Trojan Horse Death of a Dark Nation by Anon, Chapter 22, p. 135, a white identified black is defined as a black person who views the world through a “white lens,” and judges most or all events, people, places, actions, and things from a white perspective – white perspective is defined as – The beliefs, opinions, behaviors, and value systems of whites as a group”. When you Juxtapose this type of social engineering with Everything, Everything you really begin to see where a large portion of black people not only believe it is ok to date outside of their race but actually think it is preferred or more desirable. Generally speaking and sadly so the only thing that this group of blacks think should be black on black is crime, not love or loyalty.
I agree B.E. The social climate encourages blacks to see the swirl as an upgrade or a contribution to work peace. Quite bixzare.
Yeah the young generation are going to swirl themselves into oblivion.lol They have been convinced by the media that this will cure racism. One day they will realize their mistake. But I’m afraid for most of them it will be too late.
I’m with KP! I knew this would be wack. Hollywood always gets you to like someone before they fit them into whatever mold they need to fill.
Hollywood is a powerful social engineering weapon that blacks have not figured out yet we are the targets. A study showed watching television boosted the self esteem of white males. Can you guess what watching television does for black people? It has the exact opposite effect.
I believe it! We give it too much of our energy and attention!
Thank you for another informative comment!
Shaniqua, it’s not just biracial Black women, but regular Black woman such as Whoopi Goldberg, Queen Latifah, Lupita Nyongo, Kerry Washington, Anika, etc., are required to be paired with white actors in IRs. Shoot, even the late Whitney Houston in Bodyguard.
@Stephaniegirl
That’s true. They’ve been pushing this for quite some time.