Oscars So White may seem like a trivial thing, especially to black, brown, and some white people concerned about police officers shooting black and brown people as if their lives don't matter too, as if killing a person that doesn't look like you is just a normal precaution for police officers.
However, Oscars So White Matters should matter precisely because Black Lives need to Matter Too. Hollywood can be thought of as anti-black stereotype creating machine. And Philando Castile can be thought of one of Hollywood's victims.
What comes at us in the form of movies, television, and books is really us-telling-us (all Americans) who we are and what we're like because they reflect how we like to see ourselves. When only white people are in control of making the movies, then the view of non-whites is distorted into stereotypes that kill.
I find it hard to believe that Rodney King was stomped by anything by straight hate, but the white police officers that attempted to murder him were set free by a predominantly white public who do not consider themselves card carrying racists while holding many anti-black stereotypes that they see as 'the truth.'
If you listen to video, without watching the video, of the man who killed Philando Castile, you will hear that he was scared out of his mind. You can hear the officer's panic yet it doesn't sound like anything happened that was frightening. If Philando Castile's girlfriend did not have the capacity to lie in that instant -- and who really could, then there wasn't anything for the officer to be afraid of. And if nothing was happening that the officer should have been afraid of, then the officer that murdered Philando Castile was scared out of his mind by images he had is head before he got up and went to work that morning, before he ever met Castile.
And the images he had in his head were created, in part, by Hollywood. Some years it cranks out negative image after negative image. Other years, Hollywood cranks out nothing about black and brown people at all, letting the last set of negative images ferment in white minds that are usually isolated in all 90% white neighborhoods even though this country is now 1/3 non-white.
The only place a lot of white people get their images of black people are from white parents and white grandparents who can only offer platitudes about equality, the occasional bit of white supremacy they don't recognize as white supremacy, television, and movies.
The officer that murdered Philando, reportedly Asian, may have generations of family that have been here since this country was formed. But a lot of Asians have come to America more recently. Between 1980 and 2000 the Asian population doubled. And I've had a few friends tell me they had relatives and other friends come to the U.S. who were frightened of black people when they first arrived in the U.S. precisely because they had seen on American television. While still in their home countries all they saw on television were blacks that were violent and criminals. Some new immigrants, Asians and others. are actually surprised to meet black people that have families, go to college, and have jobs.
I've also heard stories that White Americans processing immigrants into the country will make racist statements like "stay away from black people because they are..."
Therefore in the 1990s, it should have been expected that blacks and Asians (Koreans to be specific) would have problems getting along long, and long before the Rodney King verdict came out, before that Asian shop owner shot Latasha Harlins over a bottle of orange juice.
Our black and brown images matter yesterday, today, and tomorrow. The whitening of all good American Images matters yesterday, today, and tomorrow as well.
Caring about what is on our American Television, our American Movies, and in our American Books matter because America is ours too.
These media forms are teaching, reteaching, and regurgitating anti-black stereotypes for white people and black people alike. And when the movies, television, and books erase us all together (Oscars So White) it tells white people that they are in the world by themselves and better off that way. And some white people react badly and violently when a brown handed reality slaps them in the face by simply existing in a space they think they own alone.
Black people are being influenced by all white dominated movies, television and books too. Where do you think respectability politicians are getting their information on how **white people would like us and stop killing us if we would only stop doing X and start doing Y ** if not from what they soak up from mass media (at least partially. Black children were given the doll test, and found to be hating themselves, and failing that test long before mass media was very massive. In the 1940s black children were being treated badly and seeing their parents being treated badly by white people IN PERSON pre-mass media being massive.)
At the end of June 2016, Hollywood started taking steps in order to prevent Oscars So White III from occurring.
This is certainly a step in the right direction. But I'm trying to figure out how this "Board Of Governors" really affects which movies get made.
As far as I can tell, this board affects what movies get nominated for Best Picture etc. Of course, if a movie with a predominantly black and brown cast wins then the next black or brown project has better chance of getting funding. However, the Sundance Film Festival seems to be one of the only places where new black directors, like Ava DuVernay was a short time ago and Nate Parker is now, can get a serious toe hold in the industry.
Getting an Oscar is at the end of the Hollywood food chain. Black and brown people need more points of entry.
Already on an inside track, Ava DuVernay is making a television series called "Queen Sugar" which should generate some work for black actresses and black actors who will later become black directors and black producers.
Thanks to Shonda Rhimes, Viola Davis' production company JuVee has gotten enough visibility through Viola herself getting more visibility to get Davis' "Lila and Eve" on video. I was disappointed "Lila and Eve" didn't really get to many theaters but it was decently reviewed. That success plus her visibility raise due to Rhimes' How To Get Away With Murder has enabled her to get a deal with ABC. Kerry Washington, who just recently produced the Anita Hill story, "Confirmation," has also become a high profile figure in Hollywood thanks to Shonda Rhimes. She too has entered a deal with ABC
Now that I think of it, the reason we know Jesse Williams is due to Shonda Rhimes as well.
Rhimes is the reason Williams has had the option to fire agents getting him roles such as gangster and janitors with something uplifting or funny to say to the main white star of a movie or television show. Shonda Rhimes is one of the reasons that actors do not have to do "The Hollywood Shuffle" and take the stereotypical roles that Denzel Washington and Queen Latifah had to take to get a foot in Hollywood's door
And Denzel Washington's days of playing a stereotype haven't ended....or have they?
"Training Day" was well done according to most people. But Washington played "a thug" police officer. And he won an Oscar for being a violent psychopath in the same year Halle Berry won an Oscar for being sexually over-the-top with a white racist. Denzel and Halle both won for playing stereotypes -- as many black Oscar winners have.
Does the state of white racism in America mean that all black actors have to play stand up, good guys, limit his/her range or roles and limit the development of his/her acting skills so white people don't build on the anti-black stereotypes they adore in their heads? Should Denzel Washington have turned down "Training Day" in favor of another less exciting, less profitable, flat good guy role?
My answer is "no," Washington shouldn't have to turn down roles because white racism is what it is. The good answer to this dilemma is that there should be 90 hero roles for black and brown people for every "Training Day" character -- just like there are for white people.
When Hollywood roles are 1/3 black, brown, asian just like America, with the fully developed characters usually being good and courageous, maybe real police officers will be able to stop a black motorists without having crazy, low-life, black "thugs" in their heads from movies like "Training Day"
You will know that Hollywood has slowed its Implicit Bias Creating Machine when Denzel Washington wins an Oscar for being super humanly courageous rather than a stereotypical thug exceptionally well.
Black Lives aren't going to Matter Too until they matter in the minds of white people. One way to make Black Lives Matter Too is to hit white people in the wallet every single time they shoot a bullet that shouldn't be shot (More discussion on this on another day) But the other way, making sure that white people aren't using black actors to regurgitate the same old black stereotypes in their heads, is important too.
We need more black and brown film moving across white, black and brown American landscape to get a decrease of anti-black stereotypes in black, brown, and white minds.
However, Oscars So White Matters should matter precisely because Black Lives need to Matter Too. Hollywood can be thought of as anti-black stereotype creating machine. And Philando Castile can be thought of one of Hollywood's victims.
What comes at us in the form of movies, television, and books is really us-telling-us (all Americans) who we are and what we're like because they reflect how we like to see ourselves. When only white people are in control of making the movies, then the view of non-whites is distorted into stereotypes that kill.
I find it hard to believe that Rodney King was stomped by anything by straight hate, but the white police officers that attempted to murder him were set free by a predominantly white public who do not consider themselves card carrying racists while holding many anti-black stereotypes that they see as 'the truth.'
If you listen to video, without watching the video, of the man who killed Philando Castile, you will hear that he was scared out of his mind. You can hear the officer's panic yet it doesn't sound like anything happened that was frightening. If Philando Castile's girlfriend did not have the capacity to lie in that instant -- and who really could, then there wasn't anything for the officer to be afraid of. And if nothing was happening that the officer should have been afraid of, then the officer that murdered Philando Castile was scared out of his mind by images he had is head before he got up and went to work that morning, before he ever met Castile.
And the images he had in his head were created, in part, by Hollywood. Some years it cranks out negative image after negative image. Other years, Hollywood cranks out nothing about black and brown people at all, letting the last set of negative images ferment in white minds that are usually isolated in all 90% white neighborhoods even though this country is now 1/3 non-white.
The only place a lot of white people get their images of black people are from white parents and white grandparents who can only offer platitudes about equality, the occasional bit of white supremacy they don't recognize as white supremacy, television, and movies.
The officer that murdered Philando, reportedly Asian, may have generations of family that have been here since this country was formed. But a lot of Asians have come to America more recently. Between 1980 and 2000 the Asian population doubled. And I've had a few friends tell me they had relatives and other friends come to the U.S. who were frightened of black people when they first arrived in the U.S. precisely because they had seen on American television. While still in their home countries all they saw on television were blacks that were violent and criminals. Some new immigrants, Asians and others. are actually surprised to meet black people that have families, go to college, and have jobs.
I've also heard stories that White Americans processing immigrants into the country will make racist statements like "stay away from black people because they are..."
Therefore in the 1990s, it should have been expected that blacks and Asians (Koreans to be specific) would have problems getting along long, and long before the Rodney King verdict came out, before that Asian shop owner shot Latasha Harlins over a bottle of orange juice.
I can't remember what war was going on where, but if the Asian population in the U.S. doubled between 1980 to 2000 (2% to 4%) that might mean that a lot of poor Asians refugees with a lot of anti-black stereotypes in their pre-filled heads were still moving into the Los Angeles area during the Rodney King debacle -- all thanks to White American Television and White American Movies.
Our black and brown images matter yesterday, today, and tomorrow. The whitening of all good American Images matters yesterday, today, and tomorrow as well.
Caring about what is on our American Television, our American Movies, and in our American Books matter because America is ours too.
These media forms are teaching, reteaching, and regurgitating anti-black stereotypes for white people and black people alike. And when the movies, television, and books erase us all together (Oscars So White) it tells white people that they are in the world by themselves and better off that way. And some white people react badly and violently when a brown handed reality slaps them in the face by simply existing in a space they think they own alone.
 |
| http://newsone.com/1058015/anthony-mackie-blacks-hollywood-lazy/ |
Black people are being influenced by all white dominated movies, television and books too. Where do you think respectability politicians are getting their information on how **white people would like us and stop killing us if we would only stop doing X and start doing Y ** if not from what they soak up from mass media (at least partially. Black children were given the doll test, and found to be hating themselves, and failing that test long before mass media was very massive. In the 1940s black children were being treated badly and seeing their parents being treated badly by white people IN PERSON pre-mass media being massive.)
At the end of June 2016, Hollywood started taking steps in order to prevent Oscars So White III from occurring.
Last night, the Board Of Governors of the Academy Of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences approved a record-shattering 683 new members, more that double last year’s 322, which had been the most given keys to Oscar’s kingdom previously. Beyond that though there was tremendous pressure to come up with a list that goes a long way in diversifying the membership, especially to meet the Academy’s goal stated on January 22 to “double the number of diverse members” in the organization by 2020 — meaning women and people of color.
http://deadline.com/2016/06/academy-president-diversity-oscar-voters-change-industry-wants-1201781460/
This is certainly a step in the right direction. But I'm trying to figure out how this "Board Of Governors" really affects which movies get made.
As far as I can tell, this board affects what movies get nominated for Best Picture etc. Of course, if a movie with a predominantly black and brown cast wins then the next black or brown project has better chance of getting funding. However, the Sundance Film Festival seems to be one of the only places where new black directors, like Ava DuVernay was a short time ago and Nate Parker is now, can get a serious toe hold in the industry.
Getting an Oscar is at the end of the Hollywood food chain. Black and brown people need more points of entry.
Already on an inside track, Ava DuVernay is making a television series called "Queen Sugar" which should generate some work for black actresses and black actors who will later become black directors and black producers.
Thanks to Shonda Rhimes, Viola Davis' production company JuVee has gotten enough visibility through Viola herself getting more visibility to get Davis' "Lila and Eve" on video. I was disappointed "Lila and Eve" didn't really get to many theaters but it was decently reviewed. That success plus her visibility raise due to Rhimes' How To Get Away With Murder has enabled her to get a deal with ABC. Kerry Washington, who just recently produced the Anita Hill story, "Confirmation," has also become a high profile figure in Hollywood thanks to Shonda Rhimes. She too has entered a deal with ABC
Now that I think of it, the reason we know Jesse Williams is due to Shonda Rhimes as well.
Rhimes is the reason Williams has had the option to fire agents getting him roles such as gangster and janitors with something uplifting or funny to say to the main white star of a movie or television show. Shonda Rhimes is one of the reasons that actors do not have to do "The Hollywood Shuffle" and take the stereotypical roles that Denzel Washington and Queen Latifah had to take to get a foot in Hollywood's door
And Denzel Washington's days of playing a stereotype haven't ended....or have they?
"Training Day" was well done according to most people. But Washington played "a thug" police officer. And he won an Oscar for being a violent psychopath in the same year Halle Berry won an Oscar for being sexually over-the-top with a white racist. Denzel and Halle both won for playing stereotypes -- as many black Oscar winners have.
My answer is "no," Washington shouldn't have to turn down roles because white racism is what it is. The good answer to this dilemma is that there should be 90 hero roles for black and brown people for every "Training Day" character -- just like there are for white people.
 |
| Morgan Freeman should be here for "Driving Miss Daisy" too. |
When Hollywood roles are 1/3 black, brown, asian just like America, with the fully developed characters usually being good and courageous, maybe real police officers will be able to stop a black motorists without having crazy, low-life, black "thugs" in their heads from movies like "Training Day"
You will know that Hollywood has slowed its Implicit Bias Creating Machine when Denzel Washington wins an Oscar for being super humanly courageous rather than a stereotypical thug exceptionally well.
Black Lives aren't going to Matter Too until they matter in the minds of white people. One way to make Black Lives Matter Too is to hit white people in the wallet every single time they shoot a bullet that shouldn't be shot (More discussion on this on another day) But the other way, making sure that white people aren't using black actors to regurgitate the same old black stereotypes in their heads, is important too.
We need more black and brown film moving across white, black and brown American landscape to get a decrease of anti-black stereotypes in black, brown, and white minds.
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