Black Oscars: Who Cares?
[White folks, please avert your eyes.]
Okay, brothers and sisters, they gone? You sure? Check the lock. Okay:
I'm going to put my ghetto pass (member since 1986, platinum card, renewed 1909) on the table now, 'kay? Now I'm going to put each of my hands palm down on the table on either side of it. If you feel the need to snatch my ghetto pass before I finish this brief diatribe, then you should feel free to shred it in the nearest chipper. Here goes, Grasshopper:
Black people:
I do not care how starved for role models or leadership we as a people may be, but if you do not see a problem with heralding an Oscar being awarded to a song about pimping as nothing short of a civil rights victory, something is wrong with you.
Let me be clear: I am NOT saying a song about pimping can not or should not win an Oscar (though I thought there were better songs in the same movie, let alone in the entire 2005 film industry. "Whoop That Trick" springs to mind, and from the same film.) I am also NOT saying a rap song shouldn't deserve an Oscar. Pubic Enemy's "Fight the Power" would have been a great candidate, save that it came out in 1989, and I wasn't particularly put off by Eminem winning an Oscar for "Lose Yourself". I am also NOT saying that Three 6 Mafia isn't a talented group of cats (though we could debate this point and I wouldn't put up a great amount of struggle).
What I AM saying is that black folks shouldn't view the win as a particularly bright moment in black history. We shouldn't be championing it as a progressive move into a racist industry, or beating The Man at his own game. We should be looking at what it MEANS, what it represents, and not merely what it IS. *
What it IS is another Oscar to put on the pile of black Oscars. What it REPRESENTS is yet another example of black villainy rewarded. **
What it IS is the first time a rap song was performed at the Oscars in its decades-long history. What it MEANS is that the only performance by black people on that stage before a worldwide audience was a song about pimping, bitches and how hard it is to pimp bitches.
WHat it IS is an award. What it MEANS is that black people who think an award for a song about pimping is a great thing are so thirsty for representations of themselves on the world stage that they'll take any crumb of validation, even if it means we have to be pimps and whores to do it.
Please know that the Oscars mean absolutely nothing to me. I don't think it should mean as much as it does to as many people as it seems, especially black people. It distresses me every year when black people decry the industry's lack of nominations or winners, as if the Oscars are the front line of the issue. Winning Oscars is not the battle. Working in the industry is the battle. Directing movies is the battle. Writing quality screenplays is the battle. Acting our asses off even if we're the waiter in the background is the battle. When Whoopie Goldberg received her consolation Oscar for Ghost while being completely ignored for her genuinely moving and transcendent work in The Color Purple, black folks should have gotten hip then: the Oscars is a political and cultural weapon of mass distraction. The only people who should actually care - actually see any relevance to the world around them regarding who wins or loses an Oscar - should be actors and filmmakers. Eveyrbody else should probably be a little more concerned about, I don't know, poverty or illiteracy or something. I'm not saying you can't talk about this stuff over a water cooler; I'm saying treat the winners of Oscars like what they are: pretty people with a new toy, not outstanding role models or pioneers or revolutionaries.
NOTES
* = One of the things that it MEANS is that out of all the songs in movies that played all of last year - black, white, comedy, dramatic...whatever - this is the one song that industry insiders thought would be the best representation of musical composition, performance and production values for their entire industry. Just the mathematics of that equation should scare you, let alone any deconstruction of the politics that ALWAYS go into making such a decision. I mean, it wasn't even the best song on its own soundtrack, let alone in the industry. But I digress. This is all just the cigarette smoked after the grunting of my original ethnicentric point.
** = Of the major Oscar nominations of the past 20 years, half of the black ones have been for negative or downright stereotypical characterizations of black manhood or black sexuality. And in 2002, we got an award for one of each in the two biggest categories: Denzel Washington, Training Day (thug-ass cop) and Halle Berry, Monsters Ball (single poor whore). But you already heard that argument before. And yes, I can do the math if I have to.
Okay, brothers and sisters, they gone? You sure? Check the lock. Okay:
I'm going to put my ghetto pass (member since 1986, platinum card, renewed 1909) on the table now, 'kay? Now I'm going to put each of my hands palm down on the table on either side of it. If you feel the need to snatch my ghetto pass before I finish this brief diatribe, then you should feel free to shred it in the nearest chipper. Here goes, Grasshopper:
Black people:
I do not care how starved for role models or leadership we as a people may be, but if you do not see a problem with heralding an Oscar being awarded to a song about pimping as nothing short of a civil rights victory, something is wrong with you.
Let me be clear: I am NOT saying a song about pimping can not or should not win an Oscar (though I thought there were better songs in the same movie, let alone in the entire 2005 film industry. "Whoop That Trick" springs to mind, and from the same film.) I am also NOT saying a rap song shouldn't deserve an Oscar. Pubic Enemy's "Fight the Power" would have been a great candidate, save that it came out in 1989, and I wasn't particularly put off by Eminem winning an Oscar for "Lose Yourself". I am also NOT saying that Three 6 Mafia isn't a talented group of cats (though we could debate this point and I wouldn't put up a great amount of struggle).
What I AM saying is that black folks shouldn't view the win as a particularly bright moment in black history. We shouldn't be championing it as a progressive move into a racist industry, or beating The Man at his own game. We should be looking at what it MEANS, what it represents, and not merely what it IS. *
What it IS is another Oscar to put on the pile of black Oscars. What it REPRESENTS is yet another example of black villainy rewarded. **
What it IS is the first time a rap song was performed at the Oscars in its decades-long history. What it MEANS is that the only performance by black people on that stage before a worldwide audience was a song about pimping, bitches and how hard it is to pimp bitches.
WHat it IS is an award. What it MEANS is that black people who think an award for a song about pimping is a great thing are so thirsty for representations of themselves on the world stage that they'll take any crumb of validation, even if it means we have to be pimps and whores to do it.
Please know that the Oscars mean absolutely nothing to me. I don't think it should mean as much as it does to as many people as it seems, especially black people. It distresses me every year when black people decry the industry's lack of nominations or winners, as if the Oscars are the front line of the issue. Winning Oscars is not the battle. Working in the industry is the battle. Directing movies is the battle. Writing quality screenplays is the battle. Acting our asses off even if we're the waiter in the background is the battle. When Whoopie Goldberg received her consolation Oscar for Ghost while being completely ignored for her genuinely moving and transcendent work in The Color Purple, black folks should have gotten hip then: the Oscars is a political and cultural weapon of mass distraction. The only people who should actually care - actually see any relevance to the world around them regarding who wins or loses an Oscar - should be actors and filmmakers. Eveyrbody else should probably be a little more concerned about, I don't know, poverty or illiteracy or something. I'm not saying you can't talk about this stuff over a water cooler; I'm saying treat the winners of Oscars like what they are: pretty people with a new toy, not outstanding role models or pioneers or revolutionaries.
NOTES
* = One of the things that it MEANS is that out of all the songs in movies that played all of last year - black, white, comedy, dramatic...whatever - this is the one song that industry insiders thought would be the best representation of musical composition, performance and production values for their entire industry. Just the mathematics of that equation should scare you, let alone any deconstruction of the politics that ALWAYS go into making such a decision. I mean, it wasn't even the best song on its own soundtrack, let alone in the industry. But I digress. This is all just the cigarette smoked after the grunting of my original ethnicentric point.
** = Of the major Oscar nominations of the past 20 years, half of the black ones have been for negative or downright stereotypical characterizations of black manhood or black sexuality. And in 2002, we got an award for one of each in the two biggest categories: Denzel Washington, Training Day (thug-ass cop) and Halle Berry, Monsters Ball (single poor whore). But you already heard that argument before. And yes, I can do the math if I have to.