Black Women in Entertainment
‘OITNB’ Actress On Why She’s ‘Proud’ To Portray A Black Muslim Woman On Screen
“I’m proud to be playing Alison Abdullah,” Amanda Stephen said.
Aside from the one-of-a-kind storylines presented in the hit Netflix show “Orange Is the New Black,” the cult series also stands out from other mainstream shows for its depiction of characters from diverse racial, religious and socioeconomic backgrounds.
Actress Amanda Stephen plays Alison Abdullah, a black Muslim woman who represents one of several marginalized groups viewers see in the series.
Stephen spoke with HuffPost on Tuesday about the pride she takes in representing such a rarely portrayed demographic.
“I’m proud to be playing Alison Abdullah, a black Muslim here in America,” said Stephen, who doesn’t practice Islam in her personal life.
Muslim characters on TV are so often typecast as terrorists that even former President Barack Obama once felt compelled to call out the media’s stereotyping.
“Our television shows should have some Muslim characters that are unrelated to national security. It’s not that hard to do,” the 44th president said during his visit to a Baltimore mosque in February 2016.
While having a Muslim TV character without a terror-related storyline is rare in itself, it’s even rarer for such a character to be a black woman. Stephen noted this lack of representation, saying she can only recollect one instance of seeing someone in that role on television.
“Regina King playing a Muslim woman in ‘American Crime’ was really the first time I’d seen a modern African-American black Muslim woman played and it showed so many different layers of her,” she said.
“Any underrepresented group deserves to be represented … entertainment and arts is supposed to be a reflection of society,” Stephen continued.
But there is one thing that differentiates…
Please read original article – ‘OITNB’ Actress On Why She’s ‘Proud’ To Portray A Black Muslim Woman On Screen
