With all the recent [and deafening] buzz surrounding the prospective chances of Precious taking home a crap load of prizes at next year’s Oscars I couldn’t help but assess the cultural implications of a potential win for the film. There are two things I’ve been hearing about for ages since I’ve been taking notice of that guy called Oscar. One is that Oscar is homophobic. Two, Oscar is racist. I'm not gay, so I can’t fairly assess the former. But as a black person I’ll look at the latter.
It is a fact that the number of black persons who have been Oscar winners and nominees is a small fraction of the white winners and nominees but I don’t see how this is proof of the Academy’s racism. I’ve heard the fact that losses of Eddie Murphy, Whoopi Goldberg, Cicely Tyson, Viola Davis, Angela Bassett and countless others are all proof that Oscar hates the blacks. But as a black person myself, I really don’t see how this claim can be substantiated. The number of black actors (directors, writers etc) is much smaller than the number of whites. There is a reason that black people are regarded as a minority in America. And notwithstanding, if it comes down to two performances of equal merit, should Oscar reward the black person just because they’re black?
Writing this, the topic of Denzel Washington came to mind. I don’t like him much. The guy has two Oscars, he’s a good box office draw and he’s well liked and famous. When I told this to a classmate of mine that I didn’t like him [but liked Pitt, Depp, etc] she said I was a racist – yes I’m black. But my dislike of Washington has nothing to do with his race. If for some inexplicable reason I was contestant on Jeopardy and for some reason Alex Trebeck’s clue was “The white Denzel Washington” I’d promptly answer Tom Hanks. I don’t like him either. The two actors are different sides of the same coin for me. Both are popular, two Oscars each, and bland as far as I’m concerned. But at least Washington stars in good films. Most of the time, at least. Which I can't really say for many black actors.
Isn’t the lack of blacks at the Oscars a reflection of lack of substantial good performances? Sure, Oscar isn’t omniscient and we don’t always agree with some of the choices that they make but I can’t remember when a film or actor has been snubbed completely for being black – I can’t remember it seeming like that either. And no, Dreamgirls cannot be an example. Yes Condon and Company [mainly white] were snubbed in the main categories, but Hudson [who was less deserving that Condon and Co. would have been] was nominated and went on to win. And if we’re going to talk about Dreamgirls being snubbed despite a mass of nods what of They Shoot Horses, Don’t They? or The Poseidon Adventure or even The Dark Knight. They each earned multiple nods with no correlating best picture nod. Nothing to do with being black.
Precious isn’t at the top of my list as far as the possible Oscar contenders I’m yet to see goes but I wouldn’t grudge it if it wins. But I hope it doesn’t win it doesn’t turn into a march against Oscar’s racism. Who knows? Maybe, I’ll see it and think it’s perfect but perfection doesn’t always win. So I wouldn’t throw the race factor into it. To be honest though, all the recent buzz for it has made me hope it doesn’t win the Oscar. This reminds of last year when in the thunderous rise of Obama I was hoping that Hillary Clinton would pull an upset. Not only because she turned into the underdog, but I just liked her more. I remember people saying I was a bad black person. Obama's black, a win for him would be historic etc, etc, so I should like him. But I’ve never been one to defend something based on race. But the whole issue has become somewhat exacerbated by the comment I read where someone said that you should like Precious because it’s excellent and if you don’t you’re a racist.
I mean, WTF? But who knows? Maybe I’m racist. What do you think?
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