![]() ![]() ![]() Katherine Johnson lived her life as a tremendous example for young women of color who excel at math and science but feel excluded from the establishment. It’s a story of struggle and willpower, but not of individual glory… it looks closely at the remarkable person in the context of a community.” Despite its simplifications and glosses over Cold War history and the depth of prejudice in American society, Hidden Figures does something very different from most biopics, as Atlantic editor Lenika Cruz writes, telling “a story of brilliance, but not of ego. But to succeed, they had to work together instead of competing with each other. The point is not that Johnson and her colleagues decided to make racism and sexism central to their stories they simply wanted to be recognized for their contributions and be given the same access and opportunities as their white male colleagues. The feature treatment moves audiences, but it also soothes them with feel-good moments that “keep racism at arm’s length from a narrative that, without it, would never have existed.” ![]() Shetterly’s book, writes historian of technology Marie Hicks, casts Johnson and her fellow black women mathematicians “as protagonists in the grand drama of American technological history rather than mere details.” By its very nature, a Hollywood film adaptation will leave out important details and take liberties with the facts for dramatic effect and mass appeal. My greatest accomplishment is staying alive.” Still, she lived to see herself turned into the hero of that year’s critically lauded film based on the bestselling book of the same name by Margot Lee Shetterly-decades after she completed her most groundbreaking work. But Johnson herself kept things in perspective, telling People magazine in the interview above from 2016, “I’m 98. Her contributions didn’t end when the space race was over-her work was critical to the Space Shuttle program and she even worked on a mission to Mars. ![]()
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