Sometimes I just can’t with folks. One of my fans posted this story on my Facebook wall:

John Ridley’s upcoming Showtime series, Guerrilla, starring Idris Elba, Freida Pinto and Babou Ceesay, is supposed to be about black women during Britain’s black power movement who attempt to free a political prisoner. But at the center of the story is a character played by Pinto, a woman who is not black.

During a recent Q&A and screening of the series in London, Ridley and the cast didn’t exactly explain themselves very well when it came to the erasure of black women, according to Shadow and Act.

“My parents were a part of that movement,” one audience member said. “I want to understand why you decided [to make] an Asian woman the main protagonist.

“I understand the contribution of Asians to this, but having an Asian protagonist making all the big decisions. Does that get explained in subsequent episodes? We can’t ignore that,” she continued.

The story goes on…

“I’m not sure you quite answered the question. Why are there no black women at the forefront of the struggle? That doesn’t necessarily accurately reflect what happened in the ’70s in the U.K.,” she stated.

“Wow, really? You know this because you read about it?” Ceesay asked.

 “No, we know this because our parents were a part of it,” she responded.

And even if the audience member had read about it, it’s not as if it’s not easy to figure out who was involved in the movement—because of the internet and books.

“I said previously, I think the characters in this story are complicated across the board, so the concept that any one person is somehow better, or more elevated, or more appropriate than any other individual, I’m sorry, I don’t accept that,” Ridley said while on the verge of crying.

“I don’t want to make this overly personal, but part of why I chose to have a mixed-race couple at the center of this is that I’m in a mixed-race relationship,” he continued. “The things that are being said here, and how we are often received, is very equivalent to what’s going on right now. My wife is a fighter, my wife is an activist, and yet, because our races are different, there are a lot of things we have to still put up with.”

On the verge of crying? REALLY? FOH…

There’s a myth/rumor/theory that many men in the Civil Rights Movement were motivated by a singular desire…to date and marry out. Cool beans, but just call it for what it is, okay?