Editor’s note: The video above includes graphic content which may be disturbing to some viewers.
Akinbola Richardson, a 25-year-old graduate from Howard University released his latest work to culminate with the observance of Juneteenth.
The artist and actor who goes by Earl Saint X, said the holiday, which marks the end of the American Slave Trade, represents the embodiment of freedom.
“For those that don’t know this holiday, Juneteenth celebrates ‘the day the Union soldiers, led by Major General Gordon Granger, landed at Galveston, Texas with news that the war had ended and that the enslaved were now free. This was two and a half years after President Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation – which had become official January 1, 1863.’ So this day means true freedom – and that’s what I want for our beloved Black Queens, Richardson said.”
Richardson said he was promoted to create the visual after a public unveiling of Queen Nefertiti reimagined the historical figure with Eurocentric features.
She looked white! And I mean white. The nose, the skin. Everything. And I was heated,” said Richardson. “Not only is the black woman being attacked from all sides but now you wanna take her history. Haha nahhhhh folk, you good!”
The 16 minute visual is littered with physical examples of negative imagery in the media, the Black woman’s pain emanating from physical violence, to the exoticizing of Black women’s bodies, “Save The Black: Queen” aims to strike conversations delving into the complexities of the Black woman’s experience in America.
Watch the whole video above.
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