Whether through the guise of leaders such as Martin Luther King Jr, Patrice Lumumba, Robert Mugabe, or Thabo Mbeki, there has always been a desire for blackness to exist without the ever-present weight of being black.
Traditionally, representations of black bodies usually fall into two criteria: either as an image of immense strength and achievement, or a personification of black strife and pain. A middle ground has evidently never been an option for those living black lives, nor those watching them play out in art, film or any other mediums.