Lupita N’yongo is a black actress known for many firsts. The first Kenyan to win an Oscar, the first African American actress to win an Oscar for her very first film. There are many. But today she chose to become the first in a category that she otherwise would have preferred to have avoided altogether. She just became the first black woman (and black A lister) to recount her experiences at the hands of serial rapist and sexual assaulter, Harvey Weinstein.

As the numbers rose, of women who had been either solicited, sexually assaulted or even outrightly, a pattern began to emerge, one that had also emerged when comedian Bill Cosby was accused of serial rape. The number of women who were coming forward were predominantly white, with the exception of a few women like actress and model Beverly Johnson. While this made it easier for the Bill Cosby case to gain traction, it also made many wonder if there were who minorities who simply would or could not come forward with their own stories. Before Lupita came forward, some journalists and critics had begun to point towards the blatant racism in the film industry that denied the women of colour the opportunity of even sharing the same room with the producers, actors and men in power who abuse said power in exchange for sexual favours. Lupita’s telling her story, which began long before she won her Oscar or even proved herself as an actress, suggests that these men in power prey on vulnerability and innocence, no matter what the race.

Hopefully Lupita coming forward will encourage other women of colour in America, content to merely skirt the issue of sexual assault in a bid to keep themselves marketable the push to consider the idea of coming forward with their own stories.

This is a terrible place for representation to matter, but it does, none the less.