By Kele Alfred-Igbokwe '19

Content warning: mentions of racism

The film crushed my heart with the wistfulness of love lost over the course of chasing dreams, of the sacrifices of creative drive. 

Throughout the film, however, my mind was bogged down by an incessant observation: all the people of color (except John Legend’s character) were in the background as amorphous jazz music machines. The thing is, they had presences as brilliant jazz musicians, but they had almost no speaking roles, didn’t drive the story, and were only there to supplement the main characters, who were almost all white. The film was centered around two white characters, while subsequently using people of color as musical props.