“The word that I would like to eradicate today is ‘unspeakable,’ because I think everything should be spoken.”– Viola Davis

photo courtesy of Just Jared.

Viola Davis recently revealed her painful past struggles with hunger. When Viola Davis shot to overdue stardom in her role as maid Aibileen Clark in 2011’s The Help, a surprising number of African-Americans criticized her Oscar-nominated performance as one perpetuating stereotypes associated with our painful Jim Crow past. Davis stood by her character. She would not back down. From numerous talk show couches and award show stages, Davis defended African-American maids of past and present. She asked audiences to respect such experiences as valid Americana to document and fruitful material for Black artists to draw from. Now, she is using her own experiences as a child who grew up in what she describes as “abject poverty” to give more context to her commitments…