The memory appears before me crystal clear. I’m sitting on my couch, mentally running through the itinerary for the day. A sudden impulse strikes, spurring me, to check the latest on twitter triviality. It is then that my eyes befell upon a starting update. My blood screamed. Static electricity shot up my spine. The latest from the Percy Jackson S2 casting had rolled in: Tamara Smart has been cast as Thalia Grace. The daughter of Zeus would be played by a dark skinned Black girl. At once I fell to my knees, giving praise to God, the gods and the higher power of the casting team. Of course, they were not all to thank for the miracle, many a prayer/manifestation/spell casting circle had devoted valuable time and energy towards this outcome. Vindication was electric and all powerful. My carefully scheduled itinerary was soon found crumbled at the bottom of the waste bin. I found myself scouring the information and discourse pouring in from all sides of the internet and discord channels. My mind was a traffic jam of thoughts impatient to cram their way in. How could I focus on anything else when there were the implications of a Black Thalia to consider?
Thalia and Annabeth
It didn’t take long to encounter emphatic celebration from Black women online at the news of Tamara’s casting. Key to impassioned plea for a Black Thalia from me and other Black fans stemmed from the character’s surrogate older sister relationship with Annabeth. Family and community, especially among young Black girls are crucial for the development of self-esteem and identity. Thalia being Black creates an opportunity to explore the beauty of Black sisterhood in a unique genre space. Thalia wouldn’t just be the example of a badass demigod but a crucial role model for a little Black girl navigating monsters in both the real and godly world. I mean who else would have been doing baby ‘Beth’s hair while they were on the road? Luke? Let’s be serious.
Whether or not we do end up seeing this scene, we will witness the extent of Thalia’s influence on Annabeth. An influence that can be observed in how she chooses to carry herself when we meet her in episode 2. I personally believe that Annabeth’s “commander” type persona is in part manufactured. It’s a guise she puts on to exert control over her circumstances and keep others at a distance. While I believe part of this person is adopted from her mother, Athena, I also believe a good case can be made for Thalia’s influence as well. Thalia and Luke were Annabeth’s first examples of what it meant to be a demigod/hero. Although she has a close relationship with Luke, it is Thalia she idolizes. When prompted to describe Thalia in episode 4 of Season 1, Annabeth immediately creates distinction between her relationship with Thalia versus hers with Luke. She is fond of the latter but when she speaks of Thalia, there’s reverence in her words. Why wouldn’t she aspire to be like her kick-ass older sister? The hero who sacrificed his lives for his friends? Just as we saw a flashback of Luke training Percy, to see Thalia teaching Annabeth how to use her knife (even if it was gifted by Luke) would solidify Thalia’s lasting impact on the Annabeth we have come to know. Additionally, Thalia’s impact extends into Annabeth’s personal relationships. Just as Thalia made Annabeth earn their relationship, Annabeth similarly keeps herself at an emotional distance from her peers as well. A comparison called out by Percy, “I gotta earn it with you too?” But these traits are developed in the absence of Thalia. How might Annabeth’s behavior change when Thalia returns? With her big sister back, will she revert to a little girl again?
Conversely, how will Thalia react to her baby sister all grown up? What might they say to each other when that moment inevitably arrives? Sister-Sister relationships are sacred and esoteric. There is no one in the world I trust to have my back than my own little sister, Olivia. There is also no one I am more protective of. She is tough and tenaciously independent; but she can always find comfort and support in my arms. It aches me to live on the opposite coast away from her; missing pivotal moments of her adolescence. Fortunately, I do get the reprieve of seeing her every few months or communicating via our sporadic texts and calls (whenever she deign graces me with her time). I cannot imagine all that Annabeth must have long to tell Thalia or wanted to ask advice for. I weep in anticipation of the wistful punch in the gut when Thalia realizes just how much of Annabeth’s life she has missed. Time they will never get to have; memories they will never share. Thalia might only take part in these moments second hand, hearing it from Annabeth or worse…Percy.
Camp DEI
When white conservatives bemoan about Affirmative Action robbing jobs and university spots from good old hard working white folk, they are talking about the Percy Jackson series. One look at the main cast sends me into a gleeful orbit. Percy truly is the token white boy in this show in a cast that is predominantly Black and BIPOC. It’s giving “We are African-Americans…and Mark”. Truly these are the Black jobs Trump was talking about.
Sorry, I had to take a moment to be a little silly. But back to our regularly scheduled program…
The Last Black Girl Standing
More than anything Tamara as Thalia is just plain freaking awesome! In the books, Thalia is described as being heavy on the punk/alt aesthetic and taste. This is huge for the Black punk/alt girlies; another sub-group not often given attention IRL or in the mediasphere. By casting Tamara, we immediately expand the ways in which Black girlhood can be expressed. We can be moody, brooding, electric and PUNK! How freeing and exciting? In my youth, I had flirted with the idea of exploring the alt scene but I was hesitant to do so because I didn’t have any Punk/Alt Black girl examples to look at. I can only imagine the impact this Thalia would have on the would be punk/alt rock Black girls waiting for their example. But as thrilling as that is, her example might be all they get.
Black girls in TV/Film are becoming an endangered species. Unfortunately, I am not being hyperbolic. Those who have been paying close attention to the latest casting news and TV cancellations will observe a pattern of Black girls disappearing from the narrative (literally!). We are not being cast in upcoming YA projects. The powers that be do not stop at canceling our shows despite successful ratings (RIP PLL: Summer School) but go as far as to erase some of them from their streaming platforms (looking at you Disney +). Young Black actresses as of late have talked up about the difficulty of being cast in roles that should be open to them. This is not to say that there are no roles for Black actresses but that there are fewer than before. A trend Black women have not so silently taken notice of. On twitter one only has to type in #wherearetheblackgirls to see what I am talking about. Or better yet check out this Teen Vogue article that detailed the viral hashtag and the circumstances that motivated its inception. In light of this outcry and noticeable lack in casting, it feels like no one is interested in casting young dark skinned Black girl…except for Percy Jackson.
I must admit that a good deal of my astoundment at the casting was that PJO would allow us to have a dark skinned Thalia Grace. I already felt so grateful to have Leah as Annabeth, but to have two Black women leads? I truly fell out of my chair. This wasn’t simply a controversial pick, it was a stand against erasure. I felt it and others felt it too. Online, it was a wave of relief and justification after months of vitriolic arguments against a Thalia that deviated from the source material description. Tamara Smart as Thalia Grace is a victory for Black girls everywhere but she shouldn’t have to be. While I applaud Rick Riordan and the PJO TV team for their commitment to racially and ability diverse casting, this should be the standard. This is the expectation all of us must hold the companies and creative teams that produce our TV shows and movies accountable to. Black girlhood representation matters! In all facets and genres, we deserve to see ourselves actively lead the narrative. None of us should not be erased simply because the source material (written nearly two decades ago) didn’t write certain characters as Black, Brown or anything deviating from the hegemonic standard. It is my hope that the success of the Percy Jackson series and its exceptional cast inspires other shows and films to move with intentional inclusivity and true representation. Anything less than that would totally not be punk.
‘ substack.com ‘
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