In the earliest  scenes of Self-Made, we watch a pre-millions Sarah Breedlove suffer a health crisis that causes her hair to fall out, endure abuse and abandonment by the man she loves, and face insult and rejection from a light-skin for her “slave features”. As someone who’s experienced all three circumstances at different times along my journey, Self-Made had me hooked right away. Each of these traumas send her down into spirals of depression that would ultimately catapult her to astounding success. Like probably every self-made Black woman millionaire ever, she turned her pain into her profit.

As someone on my own self-made journey, and who fully intends to leave an empire to my daughter, this depiction of an audacious, headstrong, fearless woman founder meant the world to me. Had I been exposed to such images of Black women founders growing up, my long and windy road to entrepreneurship may have been a bit shorter. This is why it was so important for me to watch it with my eleven-year-old mini-me.

Prior to this film, I knew very little of Madam CJ Walker’s story. As a historical Black woman, it’s no surprise her story wasn’t taught in American history classes, nor that it is often glossed over during Black History Month. All I knew was that she was the woman who made it easier for Black women to straighten their hair with chemicals–a detail that was conspicuously missing from the film. Even though Netflix calls this a limited series, it felt like a film to me–I watched it almost straight through–and I’m calling it that.

It’s important to note that this project is not a true biopic. The film is heavily fictionalized, and in such a way that it reinforced many tropes. I link to historical articles at the end of this piece to which you can refer for the more accurate histories. But I’d like to analyze the project as a fictional work of art.

Lelia

I loved Tiffany Haddish in this film. I see the controversy about her as a casting choice as quite valid, but I still enjoyed watching her in a role that wasn’t slapstick. That was classy and honest. I think she did all right. Perhaps a deeper emotional connection with the character would have helped us forget that we were watching Tiffany Haddish and fall deeply into a character who had the most compelling journey throughout the film. Stuck in a marriage to a questionable character, limited by her mother’s hopes for her, beloved and adored thoroughly and gently by another woman, finally choosing to uphold her dying mother’s legacy, Lelia was far more relatable than Sarah Breedlove for me.

Sarah

This depiction of Madam CJ Walker did not make her likeable as a character. Her triumphs were inspiring and her business philosophy mostly aspirational, but this portrayal had her lacking the compassion that I believe is necessary to win at life. I’m still wondering why the film glossed over her stealing of Addie Munroe’s recipe. If indeed she transformed the recipe, can it be called stealing? If she built an empire on such a secret, wasn’t that worthy of further exploration in the film? Also, where was her soft side? This depiction certainly reinforced the strong Black woman who can do it all by myself trope. She always knew better than everybody else and had no patience for anything. Not aspirational.

CJ

Disclaimer: I’m old school. I like having doors opened for me and men carrying my bags and changing my tires and I always will. I’m a woman. I give life, I carry babies, so I’m not interested in carrying much else more than that I delight in.

In the beginning, I saw Sarah’s relationship with CJ as couple-goals. A man wholeheartedly throwing his weight behind his woman’s dream? It wasn’t explicitly shown, but I assumed he invested in the business, and the affection and adoration were beautiful to see. However, I did keep waiting to see him build his own separate empire. The trajectory of his emasculation was  a bit predictable, but it was believably portrayed. And of course he has to cheat on her with her light-skinned employee. Insert eye-roll here.

Unforgettable Quotes

“Never get your money where you get your honey.”

Cleophus, CJ’s father advising him to carve his own path. 

“It’s my duty to make money and to use it for the benefit of my neighbors.”

Sarah’s business philosophy.

“Take one more step and I’ll blow the black off you.”

Sarah’s threat to her attempted rapist.

“Female enterprise is good for us all.”

Sarah’s–and this film’s–most important message.

Wrap-Up

Overall, I loved the visuals, the mommy-daughter love, the period details, the wigs (except for that horror they put on Octavia Spencer’s head to imagine what hair loss might look like), the dance numbers. But this film should not have been promoted as Madam CJ Walker’s life story due to the countless inaccuracies. It’s greatest value is in anchoring us in the golden era of Black women’s entrepreneurship, just over a century after two of the world’s greatest Black women founders, Madam CJ Walker and Annie Malone, paved the way for millions of Black women to build their own empires.

It’s our time, Black woman founder. This film is a timely reinforcement of this glorious truth, and I’m calling on all Black men, and everyone else, to invest in us with reckless abandon. Like the fictional and the real Sarah Breedlove, when given the right resources, we always find a way to win.

If you’ve seen the film and have thoughts on it, please rate it here.

Great Twitter Threads on Self-Made

Historical Articles

Madam CJ Walker: Her Crusade (Henry Louis Gates Jr., 1998)

Madam CJ Sarah Breedlove Walker: US’s First Black Female Millionaire (Jennifer Latson, 2014) 

Who Is Madam CJ Walker? – The True Story Behind Netflix’s ‘Self Made’ (Emma Dibdin, 2020)
Did Self-Made Base Madam C.J. Walker’s Rival, Addie Monroe, on Annie Malone? (Chloe Foussianes, 2020)