While scrolling through my Facebook newsfeed a few days ago, I came across Jada Pinkett-Smith's viral rant about the Academy Awards . I immediately came to the conclusion that she was sour that her Hollywood heavyweight husband, Will Smith, was not nominated for his role in his new film Concussion. I took another view of the video before beginning this article and could not help but notice the arrogance and anger in her voice. Assuming Pinkett-Smith acknowledges the power she has as an African-American celebrity in her community, I feel she did this to intentionally lower the ratings of the Academy awards. I am almost positive she understands that most of the African-American community will back Pinkett-Smith because pulling the race card is very easy these days, especially if it involves African-Americans against Caucasians. I would also assume that the actress has not seen every performance of each actor/actress that was nominated.
Smith suggests the idea of a Black Oscars--I thought BET already had its own channel and award show? This is outrageous to me because I, for one, have created relationships with people of many different races over the years. I find this to be a step backward from peace and a step towards segregation. I also find this a slap in the face of Chris Rock (who will be hosting this year’s Academy Awards). Personally, I am a fan of Chris Rock and was thrilled to hear he was selected as this year’s host. According to hollywoodlife.com, Rock is “nervous as hell to host the Oscars amidst controversy.” Pinkett-Smith has now involved many celebrities of African-American descent by what she said in the video, pressuring them into making a choice.
I thoroughly believe that the Academy Awards are based on the level of talent in an actors/actresses performance, along with the quality of the film in which they are acting in. Although it does seem as if the Academy Awards have missed great performances and films every year, not just involving black actors/actresses. In my opinion The Hateful 8, Quentin Tarantino’s new film, should have been nominated for more awards than it was nominated for. I am a film fanatic and have seen three black actors in lead roles this year: Samuel L. Jackson in The Hateful 8, Michael B. Jordan in Creed and John Boyega in Star Wars The Force Awakens. All three actors did a fine job but I truly thought the only one deserving of a nod was Jackson. I have not seen Concussion but I have not seen promising reviews. One source says, “Concussion is a movie starring Will Smith's terrible fake African accent with the same exact script as The Insider and a dozen other 'expose' movies with the NFL swapped in for the Evil Giant Corporation of the Month.”
In all fairness I have not seen Idris Elba in Beasts of No Nation, the new film he is starring in about an unnamed colony if Africa. The Academy is not going to nominate a particular actor/actress due to his or her race because that would be unfair. It seems to me that Pinkett-Smith believes that African-American people should be nominated because of the fact that they are African-American. This is why I find her claim absolutely absurd. There are ten spots for male actors to be nominated and ten spots for women actresses. The nominees are based upon talent and not upon their race. If the academy feels that these twenty men and women were the best performers this year, then so be it. Pinkett-Smith's approach seems as if she is claiming that the academy is favoring white actors because of the fact that they are white. I would like to know which nominee Pinkett-Smith would like to bump off the list and who she would add.
My claim is that Pinkett-Smith does not care how good the nominated actors/actresses are--she simply wants to see African-American individuals nominated just to feel secure. Of course she can’t detect talent; her best role was voicing the hippo in “Madagascar.” In the last ten years, there have also been a good amount of African-American performers that have won Oscars including Forest Whittaker, Lupita Nyong’o, Mo’Nique, Jennifer Hudson and Octavia Spencer. Also, two years ago 12 Years a Slave received the best picture award. I believe all of these winners deserved the nominations and wins.
I was happy to see African-American celebrities like Whoopi Goldberg and Janet Hubert speaking out against Pinkett-Smith but it was the celebrities that took her side that caught my interest. Some of my favorite celebrities like legendary hip-hop artist Snoop Dogg even claimed that the same issue is happening in the music industry with the Grammy's. Actor Idris Elba and Director Spike Lee are in favor of Pinkett-Smith's claims.
In closing, I see this as an immature act and even question if Pinkett-Smith is doing this for publicity. I say this because of the fact that her husband was not nominated. If Will Smith were to be nominated for best lead actor, I truly do not think Jada Pinkett-Smith would be outraged. I encourage people to consider how her attitude would be if her husband were the only African-American nominated. Would she still make the video then? I personally believe she would be satisfied with that.
