I would have posted this yesterday...but I felt as though I had to write about the war on women..... But I want to take the time to say congratulations to the beautiful Octavia Spencer for her best supporting actress win at the Oscars...
I call them the Oscars now...but there was a time when I hated the Oscars and reffered to them as the "Damn Oscars" for years...Let me explain...When I was born in 1958...Only one African-American had ever won an Oscar...
That would be Hattie McDaniel for "Gone With the Wind."..She too played a maid and she won in 1939, a good 19 or 20 years before I was born. I read about her and how despite winning that Oscar, she wasn't allowed to go to the Oscar party ,because the club IN LOS ANGELAS no doubt...didn't serve Black people. Well I was furious.....
I was a baby when Sidney Poitier won the Best Actor award for "Lillies in the Field." I wasn't even aware that he had won the award until I was a grown man.... But what I do remember is that Diana Ross was nominated for "Lady Sings the Blues " in 1972, Dianne Carroll was nominated for "Claudine" in 1973 and I think Cicely Tyson was nominated for Sounder around that time and none of them won...and from that time on...I hated the Oscars and wouldn't watch them...They were "The Damn Oscars " to me.....
Although I did watch them in 1974 when that guy ran across the stage naked while David Niven was presenting an award...Classic non-scripted TV moment....
I was 25 years old the next time an African American won the Oscar...That would be Louis Gossett Jr. for an Officer and a Gentleman...and I leaped for joy when he won and declared that by the time the next Black person won..I'd probably be in a nursing home and wouldn't be aware of it anyway...
It's so nice to be wrong...Within a few years...Denzel Washington, Whoopie Goldberg, Cuba Gooding Jr., Jamie Fox, Halle Berry, Morgan Freeman, Denzel Washington again!!!, Jennifer Hudson, Monique, Forrest Whitaker and Herman Cain (For pretending to be a presidential candidate...Great acting.)all won Oscars...
Okay...I was kidding about Herman Cain....but I was just happy that during my lifetime...Oscar finally got it right and became simply the Oscars again..and not "The Damn Oscars" anymore!
2 comments:
Greetings, my Brotha:
I could be wrong, but I believe that Diana Ross & Cicely Tyson were BOTH nominated during the same year, 1972. It was a first in the history of blacktresses. I recall this because it was one of those things discussed in my Black History class at the time.
Suddenly, it's not even front page news to us when someone Black wins an Oscar. I hope we haven't become so casual, or so jaded that it's no longer a Big Deal.
Due to Oscar's blatant history of racism & decades-long practice of exclusion... a Black person winning that much-coveted statuette is STILL very much a big damn deal!
Congrats to Ms. Spencer.
One.
Herman Cain?? LMBAO! Keith you are a riot!
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