The Sunday News
Raisedon Baya
THE whole of last week I tried to circle around the Oscars and the racial storm the awards have gotten themselves into. I tried to ignore the noise and the many articles online that screamed racism and the Oscars in one sentence.
Avoid them! I kept telling myself. Racism is a double edged sword; the more you talk about it the more it consumes you, from the inside, sometimes its fumes consume you to a point of actually turning you from victim to perpetrator. Since you are reading this article it is obvious that my attempts at avoiding the issue failed. As I write Hollywood is burning. Thick black smoke threatening to engulf all the glitz and glamour associated with the awards ceremony.
Ever since the list of nominees came out actors of colour have publicly threatened to boycott this year’s Oscars.
There are three names most people expected to see on the Oscars list. Will Smith. Idris Elba. Samuel L. Jackson. All three were nowhere near the list and the result was a huge public outcry. People of colour everywhere are screaming exclusion and racism! Personally, I was disappointed, especially by Idris Elba’s omission. He truly deserved a nod.
Here is what I wrote on this very column about the British-born actor after watching Beast of No Nation late last year.
“While Idris Elba’s Mandela performance sets him apart from many actors I believe in Beasts of No Nation, playing a rebel soldier who recruits and trains children soldiers Elba outdid himself. In this film he delivers perhaps his finest performance — I’m keeping my fingers crossed this role will get him an Oscar nomination for 2016. And if he doesn’t get a nomination it will be perhaps because the Oscars have always been biased against actors of colour.”
It was prophetic writing. Idris didn’t get a nomination and because of that Hollywood is burning. The Oscars are on shaky grounds as most notable black actors and directors, the likes of Will Smith and his wife, famous director Spike Lee and others have said they will boycott the event. It is likely that Chris Rock will be the only big personality of colour at the Oscars this February. That is if he doesn’t boycott presenting the awards ceremony.
Interestingly, a huge number of white artistes and film makers are not even bothered by this threat or the racial storm itself. These have buried themselves deep under white privilege and continue to “see no evil, hear no evil.” One of those not moved or worried about the outcry is actress Charlotte Rampling, who is also a 2016 nominee. Rampling wants the world to believe that the black actors who missed nomination are not victims of discrimination but “perhaps did not merit being on the finishing line.” What nonsense! Only someone benefiting from the status quo can say that. Is it not obvious that the Oscars are designed to exclude other races, particularly people of colour?
Rampling should just enjoy her nomination and shut up!
In all honesty this year’s snub is more painful since it’s the second year in a row that no actor of colour has been given the nod. Last year there was no black nominee. Not a single one. All things being equal Selma’s leading actors, particularly David Oyeliwo, should not only have been nominated but walked away with the gong. And black people are not amused this time around. Joining in the global debate David Oyeliwo had this to say; “For 20 opportunities to celebrate actors of colour, to be missed last year is one thing; for that to happen again this year is unforgivable.”
Unforgivable indeed. Ironically, it is the same Hollywood that continues to talk about diversity on one hand while on the other hand it continues to murder the spirit of diversity.
But the end is nigh. Mounting pressure has actually forced the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to come out with some radical changes meant to bring diversity to the Oscars. Reacting to the threat of the boycott the Academy President Cheryl Boone Isaacs released a statement saying how she was “heartbroken and frustrated” at the lack of inclusion of actors of colour and that the academy would go through radical changes starting this year.
We can only say; did it have to take the threat of a boycott the academy to realise its biases?
