Nia Long Accepts the Icon Award and Hands the Moment Back to Black Women
Nia Long has been on our screens for more than thirty years, and somehow she still knows exactly what to say when the room gets quiet. Black Beauty Roster honored her with its Icon Award at the organization’s Excellence Luncheon in New York, and the clip of her acceptance speech has been making its way around the internet ever since. If it hasn’t landed on your timeline yet, go find it.
We are all beautiful, and they can’t do nothing without us.
Legendary editor and author Mikki Taylor presented the award, which felt right. For many of us, Mikki Taylor was the voice of beauty at Essence for years, and seeing her honor Nia was like watching one generation of Black beauty hand flowers to another. She spoke about the career that brought Nia here, from Boyz n the Hood and Love Jones all the way to The Best Man films we still quote at cookouts.
Then Nia took the microphone and turned the attention away from herself. She talked to the Black women in that room about their worth and told them not to shrink to make anybody else comfortable. And then she said the line everybody keeps repeating: “We are all beautiful, and they can’t do nothing without us.” I laughed and said amen at the same time. That was Brooklyn talking, and she was right.
Black Beauty Roster was founded in 2020 by Maude Okrah Hunter to connect the entertainment industry with Black hair and makeup professionals, the artists who too often get overlooked when the credits roll. Its yearly luncheon celebrates the people who do that work, and past honorees include Ciara. Giving the Icon Award to Nia makes sense. She has spent her whole career showing up looking like herself, and she has never seemed to be chasing anybody else’s idea of pretty.
This award comes in a big season for her. Estée Lauder named Nia its first North America brand ambassador, and she was honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in September. She is also reuniting with Ice Cube for Are They Gone Yet?, and let’s me not forget her new Lincoln Navigator campaign, so we will be seeing plenty more of her.
What I appreciate most is that she used her moment to lift up other women. Scripture tells us we are fearfully and wonderfully made, and I believe a lot of Black women needed to hear somebody say it out loud in their own language. Nia said it in hers, and the women in that room heard her.
Congratulations, Nia. You have been an icon to us for a long time, and it is good to see the industry finally saying so.
