There’s clearly lots of buzz and thinkpiecery (present company included), because it’s time again for one of the whitest displays of whiteness, that whiteness could bear —The 88th Annual Academy awards. Not to mention we’re in the middle of election season, and folks are trying to out America each other, to apparently quell the allergic reaction the institution of whiteness had to the last 8 years of the current administration. I don't think I would care that the #OscarsSoWhite this year, since it happens every year, if Mad Max wasn't sitting on 10 noms. While films like Concussion, Beasts of No Nation, Star Wars, Creed and SOC, were blatantly ignored (as per usual).
I expected films like:
Spotlight (white men uncover scandal, and expose other white men’s sins)
The Big Short (not-that interesting white dudes smugly try to stop other white men from ruining the world)
The Danish Girl (Eddie Redmayne in a dress, aka the white man conquers the final, final frontier, other trans existences be-damned),
The Revenant (white man conquers the west, and bears, and injuns, and my heart —I love Leo, DJM),
The Martian (white man gets conquered by the great unknown and other white people have to save him aka ‘Space I Am In You’)
Bridge of Spies (old white men work to stop the tyranny of other white men with a hero on a reluctant journey during the reign of the greatest generation aka ‘They Want Nostalgia’)
Even though they have 10 open slots and only used 8, I really don’t understand where Mad Max fits in. Frankly, it’s kinda disrespectful for that film to even be in the running. I saw the original Mad Max films, next to Bruce Willis, Mel Gibson was my favorite action star of the 90s ( they were badass, and MG wasn’t ‘out’ yet as a nutcase). Because of this lingering nostalgia I watched the new one. I like the franchise, but I've seen this movie before. There is nothing fiercely new about it. It was Charlize Theron rolling her eyes alot and Tom Hardy grunting. It was also slightly ahistorical in that it depicted the goons as idiots with all sorts of allusions to 'Viking' culture. That world is a dystopian future, where a white male director got to play out his end-of-the-world fantasies (like when Michael Bay —who is quite possibly a psychopath— is diddling himself while watching the dailies).
There were also virtually no people of color.
According to the pool of nominees, yet again, whether past, present or future, we apparently don't get to exist. Not IRL, not in fantasy, not anywhere that isn't struggle pornography. Word to the wise for POCs: slumdog your millionaires and learn how to be only in roles that make the academy comfortable, if you want the awards.
So, yeah, I think we all expected the Oscars to be whiter than John Mayer’s sexual preferences for #SameOlSameOl2016. However I think this trend (read: state of perpetual existence) could give us some clues into "Respectability." Actors are professionals, right? Most of them anyway. The particular actors who were snubbed this year and in years past, are the best of the best. They are well regarded in the acting community, they work on projects that are of the same caliber as their white counterparts. And yet the Oscars with his black lady president, doesn't care to notice them.
There are folks who want us to focus on ‘real problems,’ some of those folks I actually respect as people, so any snark is not directed towards them, but the rest of the “What We Need To Do Is” crew, are annoying af. The Oscar's issue is a "real problem." Make no mistake the invisibility of fictional black people, women and non-black people of color is directly linked to the invisibility of black people in Flint, in Detroit, and the hyper visibility of black folks in Chicago and St. Louis. As well as the other scenarios that carry out in the nation and the world. This isn't about rich people whining, or black people wanting quotas. This system and its agents do not care about our existence. To poison our bodies or to attempt to erase our art, is a function of the same evil, and all works together for the same effects.
#OscarsSoWhite because that's how America sees itself and it will kill us to prove it. Since not that many of us can fully assimilate, this system been trying to bury us since the moment we were not legal chattel anymore.
On a scale from 1 to police brutality, if I had to make a choice about diversity in Oscar noms, I'd rather than Freddy Grey was still alive. Or that the people in Flint weren’t being actively poisoned by their Governor and city officials But I think that people should remember that it really doesn't matter what we do in this system. We can be ignored, shut out, made invisible because we're not a "culture fit." Once we are ignored, shut out, or invisible, the atrocities can begin.
Even though it was founded on "Birth of a Nation," Hollywood is supposed to be liberal. It certainly believes itself to be and yet artists of color, professionals, who show up and do equal work to their counterparts don't get their due. We as a community learned to not expect anything from this institution. But it should be noted, these folks are worthy of the respect of their peers and we see what happens to them. So do folks really think that pulling up pants, wearing suits or ending twerking —which is a cultural right by the way— is going to stop us from being killed in the streets, pulled out of our cars on routine traffic stops, choked on corners that have been our open air office for years?
Respectability doesn't work.
Ask Dr. King, if you need more convincing.
Folks can't even see PRETEND black people, you think they care about us IRL?
Either its justice for everyone or not at all.
" I, too, sing America.
I am the darker brother.
They send me to eat in the kitchen
When company comes,"
-Langston Hughes
*Full disclosure: I like to watch Michael Bay blow things up, I liked Mad Max, and am exceedingly proud of the Oscars given to POC regardless of role. But make no mistake we are still fighting to be seen as fully human.
