Who knew that announcing the nominees for this year’s Academy Award ceremony could stir so much controversy?
Apparently, the award ceremony has been lacking diversity for years, leaving the African-American mass of entertainers unacknowledged for their accomplishments. Will and Jada Smith decided enough was enough and took to social media to express their thoughts regarding this injustice. They said they would no longer support the Academy Awards, nor will they be in attendance at this year’s 88th annual ceremony. Spike Lee expressed that he will be boycotting the ceremony alongside the Smiths, in reasoning that he is perplexed as to how “…for the second consecutive year all 20 contenders under the actor category are white?”
Masses of entertainers such as Whoopi Goldberg, Wendy Williams, and one that turned the heat up, Stacey Dash, expressed their opinions regarding the controversy. In a recent interview with Fox news, Dash voiced that the situation is “ludacris”, she went on to explaining that African- Americans must stop living by double standards and must make up their minds as to whether or not they want “segregation or integration” by eliminating awards shows such as the BET awards, Image Awards, and the Black Entertainment Television network altogether, because they “…only award you if you’re black.” She also went on to expressing, “… there shouldn’t be a black history month, we’re Americans, period.”
Now, take a quick second to let that sink in and let’s educate ourselves. The observance of Black History began in 1926 by Dr. Carter G. Woodson in reasoning that African American history and their accomplishments were being left out of the educational curriculum. The observance first took place for a week, beginning the second week of February. It was later expanded to a month in 1978 by the U.S government. Woodson’s intentions of this observance was not to idolize the African-American people but rather to inform the masses. The purpose of Black History month was not to cause cultural division, but in hopes of uplifting Black people and their accomplishments enough to be appropriately honored and recognized enough to be enforced within the education system.
The BET network, and Bad Boy Entertainer, Bow Wow, both took to social media to respond to Dash’s comments. For those who may not know, Dash played a role on a show by the name of “The Game” which appeared on BET. I guess we can say BET threw a little “shade,” the television network posted a picture of the actress on their Instagram page on set of “The Game” with the caption reading ‘Soooooo @realstaceyldash, can we get our check back... or nah?” the network was implying that since she felt their network wasn’t necessary she should feel the same way about their money, Bow Wow also took to his twitter to account to express his feelings stating, “IF WE didnt have those networks -- we wouldn't get recognized at all we thankful for BET CENTRIC ETC... AND THE MONTH OF FEB.” With that being said, what are your opinions? Do you agree or disagree with Dash? Leave your comments below!
