Leslie Jones Most Beautiful Person Analysis

The horrors of slavery is one that should not be made light of. The dehumanization of blacks during this time, forced our ancestors to endure the most devastating genocide in human history. On one episode of the tv show, Saturday night live, Host and cast member Colin Jost and Leslie Jones discuss the actress Lupita Nyong’o being named as People Magazine's “Most beautiful person”. Jones questions the standards that defy beauty by comparing America today to America in slavery times. Although Jones's rant is seemingly subversive because it emphasizes the fact that black women are undervalued, while simultaneously challenging the standards of beauty, Jones reference to a sensitive topic in our county’s history in order to prove this point-
What makes someone “beautiful” or “desirable” is a concept that black women have seemingly struggled to understand. Jones is a six foot tall, strong black woman, who is single and unable to acquire the attention and love that she desires. Despite the unique qualities that make Leslie Jones Leslie Jones, she is perceived as undesirable to such an extent that a “brother” would not “take [her] out for a cheap dinner”. Jones argues that the reasoning behind this is simply because the world views black women differently than they have in prior years. Black women were once praised for their strength and their mettle but now they have been overlooked by pretty white women. During the tv show Jones has a conversation with Colin Jost in which she ask him who he would chose in a bar when deciding between herself and People’s most beautiful woman, Lupita Nyong’o. Without a definite answer from Jost, it is still clear that his choice is not Jones. Jones than ask another question asking who Jost would choose if he was in danger in a parking lot with three gang members, in which without further thought Jost replies, “I would pick you”. In the “slave days”, Leslie suggest that her strength would get her all the attention in the world (which was confined to a plantation) - possibly even allowing her to
Jones is openly saying that if she were a slave in the “slave days”, her life would be better. Jones even compares slavery to the NBA, arguing that because of her traits she would “be the number one slave draft pick” As a result of the obvious historical inacuratetsies, it is clear that Jones is acting as if slavery was not as horrifying as it actually was. The “slavery days” that Jones consistently refers to consist of the concept of owning people. Her audience consist of black Americans whose ancestors endured this very hard reality. The simple fact that black men and women were treated as property is more than enough to make this a sensitive topic that should never be joke about or even spoken of in such a way that Jones speaks of