MONDAY THOUGHTS: OSCARS, SO...

I watched comedian Chris Rock's monologue. I had no doubt he would be funny, but alas, someone is still going to refer to him as a "coon". 

I say, get that check. 

Feed your family. 

Use it to produce an Oscar-worthy period piece set at the height of Reconstruction.

I'm still thinking about the "When your grandmother's swinging from a tree, it's really hard to care about best documentary/foreign short" line. 

Yes. At times, there really are more pressing, less superficial issues that demand undivided attention, and swift action. 

After his necessary, funny, indicting, serious, and often discomforting words, I switched back to the Downton Abbey marathon on PBS. 

I wasn't totally abandoning the Oscars. I like movies. I wanted to see Leonardo DiCaprio win. It was about time.
But I was conflicted. I like Downton Abbey. It's well done; well written; beautifully photographed. Sure. There was the Black jazz band featured in Season 4. That was a nice surprise. It was good to see Gary Carr at Downton. It's just a fact. Black people were so long excluded from mainstream media, that even now, when viewers see Black actors and actresses, something is triggered on the inside. 

No. really. It means something for us to see ourselves. It's an indicator that someone made it. But make no mistake, Black people have been creative forces for a very long time. We just have to be better about; more consistent about studying, applauding, and supporting the excellence created in the past, present, and future. From Oscar Devereaux Micheaux, to Shelton Jackson "Spike" Lee, Black people have been steadily producing worthy Art. The question is, “Have we seen it?”

Seeing ourselves means something. 

As I was eating breakfast this morning, "Bewitched" was on TV. 

When a well-dressed Black family walked into the Steven's home, I immediately perked up. It's 2016. The episode was from 1970. Back then, there would have been screaming in the house: "Hurry up! Black people on TV!!!" 

It's pride, and that pride bubbles over especially when the performance is exceptional. It's proof that we can; we're competent. It's proof that we should be included more, and we've been fighting to be included for a long, long time. Should we, though? 

Do we need to revisit Reconstruction? 

When did we fall into the inferiority, insecurity pile again? 

Is it really necessary that someone else--some other group--thinks Black people are good enough? 

Do we not trust our own discernment? 

Are we still walking around with the words of our parents swirling in our heads? 

"You have to work twice as hard. 

You have to be twice as good. Don't embarrass us."

I wondered, "Why IS the 2016 Oscars so white, when the president of the Academy is an African American woman?" 

There are sooooo many films being made every year, that will never be seen by the masses. Thanks to cable, and IMDB, I'm always discovering one film or another, that was phenomenal, but wasn't nominated for, or rewarded with an award. Does that make them worthless or insignificant? Of course not.

It's TV, but there's some powerful acting going on in a show called "The Haves and The Have Nots". That entire cast should be on the big screen. Who decides what's good and noteworthy? 

I turn on the television, and sometimes, I cringe at the way African Americans are represented. If I'm turned off, why wouldn't someone else be? 

We have to face it. Some things passing themselves off as Art and entertainment are abysmal. No. Nothing, no matter who made it or starred in it should be applauded simply to fill some quota, or answer a complaint. If I hear one more loud, tacky ratchet woman calling another woman ratchet, I don't know what I'm going to do.

We have been so conditioned to embrace our unrelated, fictive kin, that when the play cousins we see in the media fall short, we all feel it...collectively...nationwide. 

That's why the response to the Oscars was so deep. 

"What? You mean nobody Black did anything worthwhile this year?" 

We feel everything as a community. Every win and every slight. 

When a crime is committed, we secretly hope the perpetrator isn't Black because we know we're all going to be blamed for what our “play cousin” has done. 

If you don't understand what a Black man in the White House means to Black people, particularly those raised in the deep South; who know oppression intimately, you never will. 

That segment of the Black community is not the least bit surprised by #OscarsSoWhite. They're wondering why so many are so surprised, and up in arms. They figure that we should all know by now how the game is played, and that the rules and playing field are always subject to change.

Is the manner in which we are perceived our own fault? 

Is there some grand conspiracy going on? 

Have we stopped putting our best foot forward? 

Have we sabotaged, ignored, or failed to rally behind, and financially support those who ARE/have been producing empowering images and outstanding Art? 

Are we still bootlegging? 

Have we lowered standards? 

Sacrificed excellence? Settled for, and applauded mediocrity? 

Have we consistently turned a blind eye to ignorance and crap? 

Have we communicated that crap is what we want and like? 

Is that why there's so much of it?  

Who’s making the choices and decisions?

Have actors and actresses been a part of the problem by accepting demeaning roles, or are they just trying to get paid so they can feed their families? 

Have we accepted, emulated, and exalted woefully talent-less, banal, crass representatives? 

When we DO have our own platforms, do we become as political, divisive, insecure, arrogant, and exclusive as we accuse others of being? 

Is it OUR fault that #OscarsSoWhite ? 

How do we handle business? 

Do we mentor others? 

How do we treat our artists and image makers? 

Do we cheat, dog, tear down, and compete? 

Do WE even want to be bothered with us, and the stuff we create? 

IS it good enough for consideration? 

When we go to the theater, do we see the choices we have and turn up our noses, too? 

I tuned in again to the Oscars. Though the nominees were overwhelmingly White, the program as a whole was quite diverse--purposely. (The Girl Scout Cookies sale, was rich. 

No pun intended, although the exchange between VP Biden and Chris Rock looked eerily like a patron tipping a valet).

Morgan Freeman should have gotten an award just for talking. 

I had to laugh as Public Enemy's "Fight the Power" played as the end credits rolled. 

I wonder whose idea that was.

*Sigh*

"We shall overcome, someday", the need to keep proving ourselves, and the pain of being excluded after all we have contributed. 

We're still singing our songs in a strange land. 

The presidential campaigns have exposed the hatred, fear, ignorance, and racism that we knew was still there. 

Maybe one day, we'll stop underestimating ourselves, and desperately seeking validation in places and the hearts of people where we aren't appreciated, respected, or wanted--and that's not just at the Academy Awards. 

If we don't know by now how strong, resilient, industrious, valuable, competent, and worthy we are, we never will.