As this week draws to a close, I have been content to let Oscar news be. The ceremony is coming up this Sunday, February 26th, and as one who normally finds awards shows self-righteous and pretentious, I don’t get too excited about most of them. As a professed cinephile, I make an exception for the Oscars. And having already given my take on the status of Damien Chazelle’s La La Land, I didn’t think I’d have to comment again.
But an article that popped up on my Facebook feed just today caught my eye. From The Independent, a headline by Amrou Al-Kadhi reads, “I'm an Arab actor who's been asked to audition for the role of terrorist more than 30 times. If La La Land cleans up at the Oscars, I'm done.” Now, on the surface this headline certainly is dismaying, and some of what Mr. Al-Kadhi describes is also unfortunate: “in my career, I’ve been sent nearing 30 scripts for which I’ve been asked to play terrorists on screen. Roles have varied from ones as meaty as ‘Suspicious Bearded Man on Tube’ to ‘Muslim man who hides his bombs in a deceptive burka.’”
Anyone with a conscious should find this disheartening. Typecasting is an unfortunate practice that is as old as the red carpet in Hollywood and that it continues even today is a fact that should be remedied. However, where Mr. Al-Kadhi proceeds to go with his argument is a point I cannot agree with: “Moonlight NEEDS to win Best Picture. Not only because it is a cinematic feat that is to La La Land what Frida Kahlo is to paint-by-numbers, but because it sends an urgent message. A message that we’re ready to empathise with any story, no matter how far away they are from us, and how much they defy our systemic misconceptions.”
I’ll be upfront about this. Mr. Al-Kadhi and I differ in two ways: I am white and I am not a professional actor. However, what I discern is that Mr. Al-Kadhi is calling for a Jackie Robinson moment; a breakthrough of a person of color so as all people of color may have a victory, symbolic or tangible.
The problem here stems from two distinct thoughts: Mr. Al-Kadhi seems set on the firm liberal notion of the “rainbow coalition”, in which all people of color are united in their continuous struggle against the oppressive white man, and the fact that Moonlight is somehow breaking new ground (it’s not).
First the rainbow coalition. While this has larger overarching societal undertones I will focus here on the film industry; Mr. Al-Kadhi argues that Arab and Muslim actors and characters are underrepresented in film and television. Fair. But how does Moonlight winning Best Picture solve that? Moonlight is a story that focuses on an impoverished, young, gay, black man in Miami, far-removed from issues pertinent to Western, Near East, and Far East Muslims. While a Moonlight win means Damien Chazelle (who is white) and La La Land (which stars primarily white actors) keep their hands off the Oscar, how does that help create upward mobility for Arab actors or Arab storylines?
The fallacy of the rainbow coalition is an ironic one, in that it lumps together a number of diverse stories into one mindset: a cacophonous and rabid cry against the sins of white people. Forget that most African-Americans are descended from African slaves brought against their will to this country 200 or more years ago. Forget that today’s Arab-Americans have come to America by choice, most only in the last 40 to 50 years, and have been allowed to maintain their religion (the African slaves, tragically, were not). Forget all of that because a win by Moonlight is a win for all minorities because white people are mean.
Or so the argument goes.
Secondly, there will be no Jackie Robinson effect based on Moonlight, because that story’s been told. I admit, not very many minorities or minority-focused films have been nominated for or won Oscars, but Moonlight is definitely not alone. Prominent African-American Oscar winners include Sidney Poitier, Denzel Washington, Jamie Foxx, Forest Whitaker, Halle Berry, Louis Gossett Jr., Cuba Gooding Jr., Morgan Freeman, Whoopi Goldberg, Jennifer Hudson, Octavia Spencer, and Lupita Nyong’o. And those are only the acting wins, not including directing, producing, or technical wins and not including this year’s batch of African-American nominees (of which there are 6 across the four acting categories).
And that’s only the black Oscar winners. If we subscribe to Mr. Al-Kadhi’s rainbow coalition we might as well throw in all other nonwhite Oscar nominees/winners too, right? For Hispanics that includes Jose Ferrer, Anthony Quinn, Rita Moreno, Mercedes Ruehl, Benicio del Toro, Pedro Almodovar, Jorge Drexler, Gustavo Santaolalla, Javier Bardem, Penelope Cruz, and of course, Alejandro Iñárritu.
Winners and nominees of Asian descent: Ben Kingsley, Hailee Steinfeld, Ang Lee, M. Night Shyamalan, not to mention Jackie Chan’s honorary Oscar win.
Granted, none of these lists are complete. They also inevitably pale in comparison to the list of Caucasian Oscar winners. However, the point remains: Moonlight doesn’t break any substantial new ground in this regard. We’ve had Best Picture winners that focus on the issue of race played out at the Mexican border (No Country for Old Men) and that have touched on the pre-Civil War horrors of slavery (12 Years a Slave). Winners that have examined race in modern Los Angeles (Crash) and have taken middle America into the impoverished lean-tos of Mumbai (Slumdog Millionaire). So, what exactly would a win by Moonlight accomplish? What statement would it send? Not too much more then these have already done.
Let’s be clear, I’m not making a case against Moonlight. I am, however, tired of the race-baiting that rears its ugly head every time the Oscars roll around. Why can we not examine a movie based solely on its merits? Instead there is a hyper-focus that one film “NEEDS” to beat its counterpart, simply because said counterpart stars white actors and doesn’t focus on the terribleness of racism.
I sympathize with Mr. Al-Kadhi. I’m sorry the only roles that he is offered are ones that box him into a stereotype. I for one would love to see a movie where Arab and Muslim identities are portrayed “three-dimensionally”, as Mr. Al-Kadhi says. But why does that mean we need to rail against La La Land? I can acknowledge how good La La Land is as a film and appreciate Moonlight as well. If one strips away the racial argument and looks at merit, there need not be such an aggressive dichotomy between what “needs” to happen and what actually does.
So, when the lights go down and Jimmy Kimmel takes the stage on February 26th one thing is certain: this cinephile will be rooting for the best men and women to win, regardless of the color of their skin.
