The Academy of Boring White People, i.e. Why Black Actors Don't Get the Nomination

There has been some backlash this past week about the lack of a single black actor/actress nomination for the Academy Awards announced this week.  It even has its own hashtag #oscarsstillsowhite to make note that this continues year after year.  It's especially bewildering when excellent young actor, Michael B. Jordan wasn't nominated for Creed, but Sylvester Stallone was.  Now I love Sly, but c'mon now, people.  MBJ is only at the beginning of an awesome career.......not even a friggin nomination?

Just tell me how to beat you, Rocky.  Can it be done, old man?

And it's not that black actors aren't nominated.....sometimes.  And it's not that they don't win.....sometimes.  But those times do seem to be few and far between.  And there's already a lot of talk about how hard it is for persons of color to even get the roles.  Which got me to thinking.....

Do we only want to see black actors and actresses in certain kinds of roles?

Hattie McDaniel was the first African American to win an Academy Award when she won Best Supporting Actress back in 1939 for Gone With the Wind.  Hattie was famously known for saying something along the lines of "I'd rather play a maid than be one".  Some people loved that and some got really pissed off.  I'm not in a place to speak to it either way, but it stirred up some shit in its time.  And it made me wonder something......

Hattie McDaniel looking aggravated with Scarlett. 
Pretty much her expression throughout the film.

Is playing a disenfranchised character like a maid, an abused woman, a slave.....is that what it takes for a black actor or actress to get the nod?  Do we have to feel sorry or uncomfortable before we can say a performer turned in a good enough performance for that worthless little trophy?  Or does the performance have to fit a certain stereotype? 



Denzel Washington wins Best Supporting Actor in 1989's Glory
as a slave serving in the Union Army during the Civil War.

And then wins Best Actor in 1999's Training Day playing
a dirty cop.  Do we love a black bad guy? As long as it's Denzel?

The first black man to ever win an Oscar was actually years before in 1963.  It was Sidney Poitier for Lillies of the Field in which he plays a nice man that nuns believe God has sent to build them a chapel.  How sweet!  How not scary at all!

You're such a nice man, and you build stuff!
We'll let you stay!

Which gives me another idea. Do we mainly like black actors when they entertain us?  As long as they're not scary?  (Unless they are Denzel, of course, who can pretty much play it any which way and get nominated or even win! Again, also nominated for Malcolm X but did not win.)

Jamie Foxx playing Ray Charles in 2004.

Not a single actor from Straight Outta Compton nominated.
Makes sense, I guess.  They are "gangsta" rappers!

And what about the women?  Halle Barry is the only black woman to ever win the award in a lead role.  That was for Monster's Ball in 2001 in which she plays a woman who falls for a prison guard after her husband's execution. 

Halle Berry playing well a woman with a lot of pain.

It seems like black women have more luck winning in the Supporting Actress category. 

Jennifer Hudson wins for Dreamgirls and is a pretty gutsy
and talented performer in it.  It's almost a shock.

Octavia Spencer wins, you guessed it, for her role as a maid
in 2011's The Help. However, Viola Davis did not win in
the Lead Actress category.  Wha wha whaaaat?

And there are a few more awards and nominations that I'm leaving out.  They're out there, there just aren't very many.  But to me, the more shocking category is not the list of people who weren't nominated, it's the list of people who were nominated and didn't win: Whoopi Goldberg, Margaret Avery and Oprah Winfrey all lose for The Color Purple in 1985.  Morgan Freeman loses out for Shawshank Redemption.  Will Smith loses out for Ali and doesn't even get a nomination for Concussion.  I could go on, but you can easily look up these sucky stats yourself.

The fact is, minority actors and actresses lose out on awards and good roles all the time.  It's plain to see.  And sometimes it's a real wonder why other movies not only get green-lighted but then receive accolades later.  I hardly see most all of the so-called award-winning movies every year.  Some are good, and some are total crap.  I mean, Citizen Kane is considered by many to be the greatest movie ever made and it was nominated in 9 categories and won for Original Screenplay.  I wanted to kill myself while I tried to watch it. I would also rather eat my feet than try to sit through The Theory of Everything or My Week With Marilyn or anything that Woody Allen has laid his hands on.

That's just me.

I guess my moral of the story is this, there are good movies that get overlooked every year.  And there are good performers that get overlooked too.  Don't let an "academy" of boring white people decide what's an excellent movie.  You decide with your ticket dollars.  Or write you own blog.  It works for me. 

Wayne's World. One of my favorite movies ever.
Never won a goddamm thing. I don't care if you like it or not.
This is my goddamm blog.

But I will say this, and then I'll drop it.  It seems like the kind of movie that always resonates with and really speaks to people are movies about ordinary people who find themselves in extraordinary circumstances.  It would seem to me that those people can be any race, any color and any gender.  I know how box office works and how big names sell big movies.  I get all that.  I guess that's why I'm a fan of the small, indie movie.  I would again recommend the members of the esteemed "academy" to give those little flicks a try. That and never believe what everyone else decides is "good".  You decide that for yourself, my friend.