How ‘The Day God Saw Me as Black’ shaped Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor’s youth 705n49

With a career spanning decades, actress Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor consistently demonstrates a commitment to storytelling that infuses depth, nuance, and authenticity into each of her performances. Her talent has garnered multiple award nominations — including an Oscar nomination for her portrayal of Oracene Price in the critically acclaimed 2021 film King Richard and a near-concurrent Emmy nod for her role in the HBO series Lovecraft Country. Ellis-Taylor’s more recent endeavors include her emotionally captivating performance in Ava DuVernay’s 2024 feature Origin, and an equally commanding ing role in RaMell Ross’ Nickel Boys — released later the same year. More: Aunjanue Ellis-Taylor on holding back emotion, justice in Nickel Boys, and her family’s connection to the Jim Crow South (The Treatment, 2025) For her Treat, Ellis-Taylor shares a deeply personal reflection on the profound influence of the D. Danyelle Thomas book of essays The Day God Saw Me as Black. The book powerfully echoes Ellis-Taylor’s own experiences growing up as a queer woman in the Baptist Church in southwest Mississippi, where she faced the twin challenges of entrenched misogyny and the expectations of women’s subservience. Thomas’s work offered Ellis-Taylor a profound sense of validation and comfort, articulating the unspoken struggles, emotions, and resilience of Black women with authenticity and truth. Ellis-Taylor contributed the book’s foreword, highlighting how its message resonates deeply with her spiritual and personal growth. This segment has been edited and condensed for clarity. I want to talk about a book called The Day God Saw Me as Black — a new book by [D.] Danyelle Thomas. It is a book of essays about her experience of being a woman, a young woman growing up in the church, and her path to finding herself in a space that maligned her, that rejected her, that refused her whole self. That book means so much to me because it is a reflection of how I felt growing up in the Baptist Church in southwest Mississippi and feeling, particularly as someone who was a queer woman, knowing that I was attracted to other girls, and also feeling like I don't understand this misogyny that's happened. Why? Why do women have to be subservient to men? Why do women have to submit themselves to a man? And being eight years old and thinking that. The Day God Saw Me as Black by author D. Danyelle Thomas. Photo credit: Row House Publishing She has an incredible mind, Danyelle Thomas. I learned about her during lockdown. I did a film called The Clark Sisters, and she was able to talk about the minds of those women. I think that's kind of what I wanted – trying to do a little bit, you know? And what I'm doing is not to be a product of what you think is my talent, but I want to be an expression of my mind. People portray Black women like they don't think. It tarries in, as a church term, it tarries in a Black woman's mind, the unspoken, the unsaid, that place that she doesn't want you to reach, but it is hers and hers alone. So this book is the language for how I felt as a child, and it's my Treat. 41a1e