For those who care about award shows and don’t believe that all or most of the winners are told ahead of time, you may have heard that there are some people quite upset about the nominations for the 88th Academy Awards.
Actors and directors like Jada Pinkett Smith, her husband Will Smith, director Spike Lee, and others have already vocally criticized and decided to not attend and boycott this year’s Oscars, while others like Viola Davis, Lupita Nyong’o, George Clooney, and others have criticized on the lack of diversity, and still others, like Danny DeVito, have bluntly stated the racism of Hollywood.
The general consensus is that it feels as though the process of minority actors getting acclaim and recognition for their performances is going backwards. In the last 25 years, there have been 14 Black actors nominated for Best Actor, and only three have won, with only three winning for Best Supporting Actor; while only three Black women (four minority, if you add Penelope Cruz) have been nominated for Best Actress in the last 25 years, with only one ever winning (that being Halle Berry for "Monster's Ball"), and five winning Best Supporting Actresses over the same time period. And with a total of zero nominations in all four categories this year, it's hard to argue with that conclusion.
At the same time, the host of the Oscars this year, Chris Rock, has been pressured to boycott the Oscars, and has declined but said his opening monologue will address #OscarsSoWhite.
Other actors like Michael Caine have said that Black actors need to “be patient” and that their day will come, which has, not surprisingly, been met with some criticism in and of itself. Caine did admit though that an actor like Idris Elba in “Beasts of No Nation” should have been nominated, but that an actor shouldn’t be nominated simply because they are Black.
Now, I’ve been a fan of Michael Caine’s for a while now. I think he’s a fantastic actor, and while what he is saying is not necessarily untrue, I don’t think it was maybe the best thing to say in this situation.
It’s kind of similar to Morgan Freeman’s viewpoint that the way to stopping racism is to "stop talking about it." Okay, yes, if people stopped using slurs and treated each other like normal people, then that would probably help in lessening racism, but saying ‘okay everyone, no one’s allowed to talk about racism or the differences between people” is not a really effective way of doing things, in my opinion.
I think the reason that this needs to be taken seriously is because this is the, for lack of a better term for it, the Hollywood version of #BlackLivesMatter. Now hold on; don’t ready your well-thought out and angry comment quite yet.
I’m not trying to equate rich and talented artists not getting recognition to the literal killing of primarily young African American men, but they do stem from the same weed of systemic racism in multiple levels of American society.
The fact that the Internet world (as well as myself at times) is obsessed with the fact that Leonardo DiCaprio hasn’t received an Oscar yet in his illustrious career, but there is a much smaller group concerned with the fact that an actor like Will Smith has also never won an Oscar OR a Golden Globe, is at least noteworthy and troubling. I mean, come on, he’s the Fresh Prince. I thought if I remembered him, it meant my childhood was awesome. It’s not like social media was lying to me. Never.
Anyway, in a world that is so connected and one that is only becoming more connected as time is going on, is it important that people not identical to us are watching and participating in the same things we are.
Do I believe treating other people differently due to their race is wrong? Absolutely.
Do I believe that everyone wants and likes the same things that I want and like, despite the way they were raised? That’s ludicrous.
But Cameron, the Golden Globes honored Denzel Washington for a lifetime achievement, doesn’t that count?
Yes, that is very good, and Washington is a fantastic actor and definitely deserves that.
But did you know that other than Washington, there's only been one other non-White film winner nominated? It was Alejandro González Iñárritu, the director of “The Revenant." (I guess, technically, Ennio Morricone won, but he’s Italian, so it’s on the barrier. And “Son of Saul” won, which is Hungarian, so also kind of on the border.)
(Also, side note: I didn’t include the television winners in the above because 1. Television has actually managed to become more inclusive than film, in most respects, and 2. There are no television nominations in the Oscars, so, more than likely, none of these people will be at the Oscars anyway.)
Regardless, it's hard to argue for why these things are happening when people are supposedly much more connected than they were 25 or so years ago.
Now, White people: it’s important to not lash out like an animal trapped in a corner simply because minorities want the same treatment, recognition, and even respect that we have. This movement has been going on forever; it’s just only been kind of working for the last, say, 50 years.
No one is calling you a racist for seeing that Bryan Cranston, Matt Damon, Leonardo DiCaprio, Michael Fassbender, and Eddie Redmayne all nominated for Best Actor and not immediately questioning about why there isn’t anyone not White in the category. Everyone’s part of a system that has trained us to not question that. So, just question, I guess?
Ask why Will Smith or Idris Elba were nominated for the Golden Globes but not the Oscars, or why “Straight Outta Compton” wasn’t nominated for any awards, despite receiving critical and audience acclaim, or why a film like “Dope," despite receiving rather positive reviews and a wide audience, also didn’t receive any nominations.
Saturday Night Live last week had a joke about nominating films that people have actually seen. Well, what if that wasn't just a joke, and actually reality? Some of the films that were nominated hadn't even come out yet when the nominations were announced. I'm not saying "The Expendables XVIII" should be considered for Best Picture, but maybe nominate "Star Wars" or "Creed." They did alright in nominating "Mad Max: Fury Road," arguably the second most popular film of the year behind "Star Wars," a whopping ten times, but "Creed" got one, for Stallone, and "Star Wars" got five nominations, four for technical/visual/sound effects, and one for John Williams. Anyway, I'm getting off track here and supplementing the issue at hand with my own personal issues with the award shows.
A video that has started to pop again, in response or in congruence with this, was the Oscars in 1973, when Marlon Brando refused to attend and instead had a Native American accept the award for “The Godfather” on his behalf. If Brando, considered by the Academy and many others, to be one of the greatest actors of all time, can ditch the Oscars to make a point, then why can’t Smith and Pinkett Smith,, or Spike Lee, or whoever, ditch for a reason that means something to them?
This is actual a real thing that actually affects the people who are standing up for this cause. So instead of being continuously divisive, as too many people have been on issues like #BlackLivesMatter and the combating of it with #AllLivesMatter, why not come together to create and recognize all the rich and beautiful art that all of the world has to offer?
Anyway, like one of my favorite YouTubers, the1janitor, says, “Das Jus Me Doe.”
What do you think? Are you upset by the Oscar nominations? Are they too White? Are they not White enough? Do you not care?
Let me know in the comments down below!
Thank you for reading!
