The Buzz around the Oscars not having any African-American nominations has been everywhere. According to the New York Times, many celebrities, including Lupita Nyong’o, George Clooney, Spike Lee, Will Smith and Jada Pinkett-Smith, have made it publicly known that they are refusing to accept their invitations to the award ceremony as a way of protesting for change in the future. Others, such as you, Stacey Dash, have decided to go a different route.
While speaking on Fox news, you said the protests were ludicrous and that, coming from African-Americans, it was hypocritical. You said that “[African-Americans] have to make up their minds. Either we want segregation or integration. And if we don’t want segregation than we need to get rid of channels like BET, and the BET awards, and the Image Awards where you’re only awarded if you’re black. If it were the other way around, we’d be up in arms, and that there’s a double standard There shouldn’t be a black history month, we’re Americans. Period. That’s it.”
It almost physically hurts me to hear these words come from a member of the black community who has a voice and a platform to do so much good, and yet you say something like this.
It’s almost as if you don’t understand the whole point of the protest. Those who are not attending are not demanding for black actors and actresses to immediately be put into the current nominations; Those who are protesting are upset because African-Americans can rarely be nominated because there are few roles written for them, and the roles that are written tend to be one-dimensional characters, token minority characters, or stereotypical tropes — things that would never win Oscars. The more developed and non-stereotypical characters are saved for white actresses because that’s deemed as safe. Just like when reading a book, if the race of a character is not specifically mentioned, readers tend to automatically imagine the character as white. This is because once a character is deemed a minority, their whole economic, parental, social, and psychological background must be considered for the story to push forward. If a white character in a story gets a big raise or promotion, viewers automatically fill in the fact that they must have worked hard. If a minority character gets a big raise or promotion, the storyline more often than not includes how they came from nothing and became something — we have to see their struggle to success to believe it. So when a script without the deviants and explanations arises, which it often does, the role will more likely be awarded to the white actor/actress. This is why the BET Awards have to exist, because we are so often counted out of the vote. It is hard for little black boys and girls to hope to one day become an actor or actress when people like them are never recognized for what they do. So if we were to take your suggestion, what would happen:
There would be no black people being awarded for their hard work, and there would still be no black people at the Oscars.How is that supposed to advance us as a people?
And to say that we should get rid of Black History Month is truly the “ludicrous” part. In school, history should have actually been called “White History.” The only time black people were mentioned was when they were rebelling and hurting whites, or when we were slaves. Everyone recognizes Nat Turner’s Rebellion because we’re taught that it was the largest slave revolt in American history, but did you know that it’s only considered the largest because it was the revolt in which the most white people were killed, not because it had the most slaves involved? Everything in American history is measured by the effect it had on white people or white culture. The first image black students get of their history is their ancestors arriving on ships and being beaten and raped. They have to enroll in an African History course — a class my high school never offered — to learn about the kingdoms, empires, and major contributions that still benefit society today. Black history month aims to remedy this — to remind us of our history, all of our history, and seeks to remedy the trauma left over by the past and look for ways to correct the present in terms of oppression and uplift.
We don’t need a “White History Month” because that’s every month except the shortest, which has been left for us.
And we don’t need to imagine what we’d do if white people had an all-white award show because it’s happening right now.
We’re not segregating ourselves by having black majority award shows — we’re trying to give praise to those who’s faces let us know that black excellence is still possible in a world where we’re barely seen.
I’m sorry, Stacey Dash, if you see us all huddling together as if for warmth in a white snow storm and you think it’s a way of shaming the cold, instead of a means for survival.
Click the link to watch the whole interview.
