Dear readers, I could never really turn myself completely away but you know, this year, I have to say that I'm just not feeling it
Yes, my life long love, and sometimes hate, affair with the Academy Awards telecast will continue its turbulent dance this year on Sunday, February 28th, as the bloated, overlong, self-importance and surprisingly non-entertaining broadcast has deserved more than a few slings and arrows from me. But, I do have to say that the #OscarsSoWhite campaign, created in protest of the entire and sweeping lack of nominees of color for the second year in a row has been decidedly disheartening.
Again, this controversy is NOT about awarding individuals solely based upon color. This controversy is entirely about actors, writers, producers, and directors of color going wholly unrecognized, and therefore creating the perceptions that these individuals are not deserving of a nomination. Distributing a nomination to an actor of color has wrongly been attacked as something being taken away from a Causasian actor or the beyond short-sighted and idiotic response of, "Well...then, the 'BET AWARDS" are racist!! How would you feel if there happened to be a 'WHITE ENTERTAINMENT AWARDS' show?" Oh, we already have several of those and this one in particular is called the "Academy Awards." Mic drop!
Even some of the actors who have commented or have even protested against the protests have been more than disturbing as well as sadly disappointing. Best Actress nominee Charlotte Rampling in particular has been awful. Even the great Helen Mirren has been tainted in my eyes as she attempted to justify the lack of nominees of color by explaining that while films like "Beasts Of No Nation" starring Idris Elba are well deserving, they unfortunately were hardly seen, so why nominate them. Riiiiiight! So explain the wide sweeping snubs against the box office and critical smash "Straight Outta Compton" where the only nominations for that film arrived for the White Screenwriters. And furthermore, like the queues are stretching around the block for the nominated "45 Years." Mic drop part two!!
So, with that, I have decided to eschew with my annual predictions this year. I won't waste my time over something that has upset and has even underwhelmed me so. Even so, I'll still watch the show, see what host Chris Rock has to say and I'll offer a post show recap/review and hope that 2016 proves to be more enlightened and fair minded.
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