This is just ridiculous.

Zendaya and her father Kazembe Ajamu Coleman were recently asked by a Splash News reporter about how she feels about the backlash concerning her playing the coveted role of Aaliyah in the upcoming Lifetime biopic. Here’s what Zendaya had to say about the critics questioning if she’s “black enough” to play Aaliyah.

“Well a lot of people say that I’m not “black enough”, this is my father,” her father then joined her in the video, which has since been taken down,  ”I think half black is enough. It doesn’t matter what color you are, it’s about how you portray the character. For those who don’t know Angela Bassett and Tina Turner, they look nothing alike, but she was that character, so that’s I think, all it’s about.”

Whether or not Zendaya is worthy of the role is a small fish in a large pond of issues, that include Aaliyah’s family seeming prepared to completely stand in the way of the biopic coming to fruition, in coordination with Aaliyah’s former manager Barry Hankerson, both of whom claim they were not contacted in the appropriate and necessary capacity for something of this caliber to be brought to national television.

-Michele Amira @nicejewishswag