There was quite an uproar recently when none of this year’s selected Oscar nominees were African-Americans. Calls of boycotting the Oscars have been flying nonstop in recent days. Famous black actors such as Will Smith, Jada Pinkett Smith and filmmaker Spike Lee have all announced their intentions to boycott the event. Even a few white actors have expressed their disappointed with the exclusion of any blacks in the nomination process. George Clooney has been very outspoken in calling for a review of the nomination process. Yes, perhaps some changes should be in the future. Maybe we should just nominate every single actor in Hollywood, who has been involved in a film this year, for the award. While we are at it with the changes, why not just give an Oscar’s award to every single person involved in any film good or bad? By doing this, nobody’s feelings will get hurt and the world will be a much better place, right?
Since when is the qualification for an Oscars award based on the color of one’s skin? Maybe I am missing something here, but are the awards supposed to be based on talent instead? Has anyone come to the conclusion that just maybe, the reason no blacks were chosen was because of, dare I say this, talent? Perhaps this is a down period for talent in the black community. There is always a chance that things will change in the near future and there will be a number of very talented black actors come upon the scene and dominate the awards. Things come and go in cycles. Hopefully in that case, the white community will not scream and holler because no one nominates any white people.
This racial whining over the awards is utter nonsense. What if a bunch of white people suddenly decided to boycott going to say an NBA or NFL game because there are not enough white players? Have we gotten to a point in society when a person’s skin color is more important than their talent level in determining awards? If so, we are done as a society, period! Sadly we seem to be changing in this direction. Oh, we need to have a certain percentage of colored people winning the award to make things fair. Would someone please explain to me how that is fair? I think it is totally unfair to present some award to someone just because they happen to be of a certain skin color. And what about the person who worked their tail off and possesses far greater talent, yet they are left out because of some stupid color quota? Fairness is giving the nominees and awards to people who really deserve and HAVE EARNED IT! I would feel really bad if I just so happened to be a black person who was given an award just because somebody decided that there were not enough blacks getting awards or nominations.
Where is this silliness going to stop? What about Hispanics and Asians? How are we going to make sure that they are not excluded as well? The same applies to gay and straight people; surely nobody needs to be left out! Maybe the Oscars committee needs a systems where no more than a 1/3 of all nominees are allowed to be Caucasian. Better yet, lets just give everyone an Oscar for a job well done whether they have earned it or not. That is the new way of doing things in this country. The concept of earning your award and paying your dues has totally lost its meaning in today’s America. Poor Johnny the actor’s feelings will get hurt if he is not mentioned for an award even though he has absolutely zero talent! Affirmative Action used to be used for hiring purpose; in the very near future, it will used in the Oscars as well. How sad is that! If it comes to that point, they might as well cancel the Oscars and give everyone a trophy.
Mark's Views 