It is amazing in the year 2015, that racism has to be explained to anyone over the age of 12, but privilege allows some to pick and choose what they care about.
There are those who say, there were more talented films than Selma. There are those who say there are far more important issues in the black community. There are those who say that we should not let awards define us. There are those who say, we gave you'll equal rights, what more do you want? There are those who say it was what we expected, so why be mad?
My answer to all of these questions and to these different groups, is this.
Black actors never get the opportunities like their white counterparts. I remember reading how Viola Davis who has a career that began in her teens used take to three buses each way to attend classes at Julliard when she was 14 years old, and here some 30 plus years later, she is just receiving recognition in terms of good quality roles, still being snubbed for awards, and still does not make the dollars for her roles as her white counterparts. Top white actors get at least 3-4 huge movie roles a year and make almost 20 million a film for those roles. How many black actors can say the same, maybe Denzel and Will, but that is two out of how many thousand?
Black actors never get recognition for roles outside of slaves (Lupita, Denzel Washington), maids (Octavia Spencer, Hattie McDaniel), rogue/thug cops (Denzel Washington), or bad mothers (Halle Berry, Monique). Roles which portray us as less than, servants, or in a derogatory light are the roles in which we are given awards. Yes, there are exceptions to this, but these types of roles outweigh the good ones. Are these roles bad? No, but blacks portray so many different roles for which we have either been snubbed or totally ignored altogether.
Selma involves a historical event, which occurred 50 years ago, and still the fight continues. If you don't believe me, look at Ferguson, Missouri. The marches that have occurred since Michael Brown's murder, which to this day, his murderer walks free enjoying the same liberties as you and me. So the timeliness of this film, the brilliant acting, more than qualify it for more than two Oscar nominations.
Again, there are those who say that other films got snubbed. There are only a certain number of slots. The excuses rain down like manna from heaven, because it is easier to offer excuses for this continual slight, than it is to change the system. I laughed when people told me this wasn't worth marching or organizing over, but remember 50 years ago in Selma, this is what Dr. King (you know that nonviolent black leader who racist whites like to quote to get black people to calm down, or who black intellectuals like to quote to make us get in line and make the entire race look good), just to secure voting rights for those Selma citizens and for many in the South who were being denied, although the Constitution said that they could! Let's think for a moment, would Dr. King, simply let the continual snubbing of the Academy, go? If you think he would, I urge you to do some research outside of what your limited public school education taught you. Read, Letter from a Birmingham Jail or some of his more prolific speeches, you get a more accurate view of the man behind them, and why he didn't even live to see his 40th birthday. Or why the FBI was wire tapping his phones and hotel rooms.
So is the Oscar snub important in the grand scheme of things? Maybe, maybe not depending on your perspective. But today it is an Oscar snub. Tomorrow is one of our children getting gun down in the streets Or getting profiled in a grocery store. Or being passed over for a job, even though our education and credentials make us overqualified. The thing is this black skin makes us a constant target. We don't get to be comfortable, and those of us who say that we are, are in denial.
If you can't see this. If you get to pick and choose what upsets you, what you march for, and try to tell others what they can and can not march for, then you are privileged. Privileged to live in a skin that affords you the opportunity to not care about Oscar snubs, to say that others are more talented, to walk in public unscathed, unprofiled and to secure employment solely on your credentials. Don't cry, apologize, or get mad about it, embrace it. If I had it, trust me, I would!
Until next time.....
