Jasmine Guy Has the Nerve to Age

Jasmine Guy isn't in her 30s anymore, but if you paid attention to the predictable social media discourse, this is a horrible sin she must be punished for.

Guy, who stars alongside Cree Summer, Kadeem Hardison, Jada Pinkett Smith, and several other original cast members from the hit Cosby Show spin-off A Different World, is back on our screens, reprising her iconic character Whitley Gilbert in the reboot of the beloved HBCU-based sitcom.

While there's plenty to discuss about the former NBC, now Netflix show—including the talents of its young cast, such as Maleah Joi Moon, who plays Dwayne Wayne and Whitley's college-aged daughter—the sideshow over Guy's 64-year-old face is more disappointing, than surprising.

Guy actually responded to the discourse with more grace than it deserved.

“The internet can be brutal to women as we grow older. It asks us to celebrate life while criticizing every sign that we’ve lived it,” she began.

“Growing older brings change, and I won’t pretend every change is easy. But beauty, style, and joy don’t have an expiration date,” she continued. “Let’s spend less time judging ourselves and each other, and more time loving each other, making memories, and living the life we’re here to live ❤️.”

Honestly, if she'd wanted to curse everyone out, I would have understod.

But I knew it was coming when I discussed the show in private with friends (as most of you should be doing). We feared this reaction for her, for the whole original cast—as we're all women well north of 40—and low and behold, the Internet in its infinite ignorance didn't let us down.

There's this lovely myth about us—that Black isn't supposed to crack or something something bullshit. That all of us can be 50 and still look 30. That we can be 60, and still appear 45. That we can be damn near 80, and still not look a day over 62. But let's be real.

We all look our age.

Especially if you know better. Especially if you're comparing us to each other and not those who lack the complexion for the sun's protection.

(Although Black people should still wear sunscreen. Melanoma is no joke.)

Perhaps Guy no longer looking 25 is jarring for those who haven't followed her career post-A Different World, but considering everyone who grew up watching the first run of the popular TV sitcom in the late 80s/early 90s is also considerably older by about three decades, politely please STFU or save it for the group chat.

So Guy got older, and now what? Was it her job to personally supply you with boners forever? If you want to see the young Jasmine, go watch some reruns or something. Was she supposed to reject her signature character, the one who defined her career, and turn down a check? She's an actress. She showed up to act and did it well. She's still Whitley after all these years. In fact, she's a Whitley who has clearly LIVED A LIFE, one where she sees the beauty in her age. She's moving in confidence, not behaving like a desperate woman clinging to the delusion that she can stave off the passage of time forever.

Because that's the flip side of this. If Guy had pumped up her face with fillers and Botox and various nips and nucks, she couldn't win that game either. She'd be judged for that as well. She'd be "fake." She'd be uncanny valley. She'd be unreal.

Meaning, we gotta let Black women get old, y'all.

Getting old is a privilege afforded to few. And perhaps even fewer when you consider how the quality of life is falling in the United States and people are living shorter lives. Feel blessed that so much of the original cast of A Different World is still running around, breathing air, and able to participate.

Their presence is a gift. And your decision is to yell "Send it back!" because they, like you, grew to have a paunch and some wrinkles?

Maybe you should relax, relate, and realize that when you engage in these shenanigans, you're basically telling on yourself. On your fears. On how life came for you too, as it comes for all of us. That one day the fountain of youth runs dry, and the old ways come to pass.

It's coming for all of us, even you, online critic who won't take their T-shirt off in the pool. Or who would never be brave enough to be their full selves in front of a national audience for our critique.

You would crumble from the weight.

It would destroy you.

So why are you trying to destroy her? Is it because you think you don't deserve a seat at the table because of your skin tags and crow's feet? Is it because you feel bad in your saggy skin? Do you believe that by disrespecting her, you can retain your youth a day, a minute, a second longer?

You won't.

Bitterness is ugly. And it will age you just as fast as the liquor you drink and whatever you were smoking that caused this disrespect.

Because Jasmine Guy is a legend. Whitley Gilbert is an icon. And you're you.

And that's OK.

But maybe, just maybe, keep it to yourself.