If I had a son, he’d look like Trayvon.
– President Barack Obama, following a Rose Garden ceremony to announce his choice to lead the World Bank. March 23, 2012. Me too Mr. President. Can you relate?
Son. Neighbor. Sports fan. Student. Friend. Boyfriend. Grandson. Nephew. Classmate. Customer. Consumer. Cousin. Brother. Father. Husband. Grandfather. Uncle. Ancestor. Angel. Teacher. Icon. Reminder. Symbol. Inspiration. HERO. You? We are ALL Trayvon Martin.
Why I’m cautiously encouraged by our African-American Oscar wins…Since I did the album for the 5 African-American women who have been honored by The Academy with Oscars as Best Supporting Actress or Best Actress last week, here’s a look at the men…I consider many of these “body of work” awards since some of the roles hardly represent the honoree’s best work (but what do I know?)…Enjoy!
- James Baskett, Honorary Award, 1948 — Did you know in 1948, The Academy gave James Baskett an Academy Special Award (read: honorary Oscar), for his characterization of Uncle Remus in Disney’s “Song of the South”? While he didn’t officially win an Oscar for Best Actor or Best Supporting Actor, I’ve included him since he was the first African-American Actor to be honored by The Academy. It’s important to note that Quincy Jones, Sidney Poitier, James Earl Jones and Oprah Winfrey have also been honored with subsequent honorary Oscars for their bodies of work and/or humanitarian efforts. It’s interesting that this award was given specifically for one performance…perhaps Mammy was an easier sell than Uncle Remus? Go ahead, struggle with this one…I did.
- Sidney Poitier, Best Actor, 1963 — They called him our first Oscar-winning best actor in 1963 before they called him “Mr. Tibbs” (shout out to “In The Heat of the Night” my favorite Sidney Poitier movie)! Sidney Poitier won for his portrayal of Homer Smith, the handyman who single handedly builds a church, in “Lillies of the Field”.
- Louis Gosset, Jr., Best Supporting Actor, 1982 — Lou Gosset, Jr. as the hard as nails Gunnery Sergeant Emil Foley in 1982’s “An Officer and A Gentleman,” a role it’s been publicly said, that was never intended to be played by a non-White actor, is simply awesome. “Where you from boy? Only two things come from {your city here}…and I don’t see no horns!” (I LOVED him in this movie)!!! Also happy to see him win best supporting actor honors for it.
- Denzel Washington, Best Supporting, 1989 — In 1989, Denzel Washington showed the Academy why we just call him ‘Denzel’ as the resilient runaway slave turned Union Army soldier, Pvt. Trip in “Glory”. Great movie, chock full of great performances, including Denzel’s which won him best supporting actor honors.
- Cuba Gooding, Jr., Best Supporting Actor, 1996 — Who could forget Cuba Gooding, Jr. as football’s underdog hero in “Jerry Maguire” or his character’s oft-quoted catch phrase? They “showed him the money” and the Oscar for best supporting actor in 1996.
- Denzel Washington, Best Actor, 2001 — For the Oscar win he called a “twofer”, Denzel starred as crooked cop Alonzo Harris in 2001’s “Training Day”. WE know he deserved a Best Actor Award for a LONNNG time before this win and even he knew this one was not about recognizing his greatest work. But chalk this win up as a “body of work” nod…not to mention a nice PR boost for the Academy which gave Halle Berry the Best Actress nod the same year. Nothing against Billy Bob Thorton, but I’m waiting for the movie when Halle’s character sleeps with Denzel’s …Oscar win or not!!!!
- Morgan Freeman, Best Supporting Actor, 2004 — While I think his performance as Red in “The Shawshank Redemption” was MUCH better than this one, I still loved Morgan Freeman as Eddie ‘Scrap-Iron’ Dupris in 2004’s “Million Dollar Baby”. Another A+ performance from this best supporting actor Ocar winner who I’ve enjoyed in everything from The Electric Company to “The Shawshank Redemption” to the Batman Movies etc. Let’s just call this one a “body of work” nod or guilt from not winning for Shawshank! Overdue, well deserved and, as always, dignified.
- Jamie Foxx, Best Actor, 2004 — Do I need to say it? Jamie Foxx as Ray Charles in 2004’s” Ray” is one of the most incredible performances in which an actor has portrayed a beloved public figure ever captured on film. Kudos to this former Def Comedy Jam comic turned actor/singer/songwriter and comedian extraordinare for becoming our third Best Actor Oscar winner!
- Forest Whitaker, Best Actor, 2006 —Forest Whitaker wins Best Actor in 2006 for his portrayal of Idi Amin in “The Last King of Scotland”. Great performance (as usual) but too bad we can’t win for portraying Malcolm X (shout out to Denzel Washington), Muhammad Ali (or even Chris Gardner - shout out to Will Smith)…oh well, Forest is awesome so we’ll take it!
Why I’m SO conflicted about “our” Oscar wins…surely this can’t be the only way Hollywood sees us?
It’s Oscar time again so I thought I’d post this photo album which documents ALL (yes, sadly there have only been 5 in Oscar’s 83 year history) of the African American women who have won Academy Awards as either Best Actress or Best Supporting Actress in chronological order.
I’m very proud of each of these women for their professional talents and their groundbreaking accomplishments as Oscar winners. However, when I pulled this together 2 years ago on Facebook following the 2009 ceremony, the similarities in the images between Ms. McDaniel, Ms. Berry and Ms. Mo’Nique was, well, shocking! It made me feel like we’ve come so far just to be where we were 100+ yrs ago…
- Best Supporting Actress Winner Hattie McDaniel as “Mammy” in Gone with the Wind” (1939) “I’d rather play a maid and make $700 a week than be one for $7.” — Hattie McDaniel in response to criticism re the roles she played in film and TV by the NAACP.
- Best Supporting Actress Winner Whoopi Goldberg as “Oda Mae Brown,” a con artist posing as a fake psychic in “Ghost.” (1990)
- Best Actress Winner Halle Berry as the downtrodden, self-loathing waitress who sleeps with/knowingly has a relationship with her husband’s executioner, “Leticia Musgrove”, in Monster’s Ball (2001). She went from Boomerang to Storm/XMen to a Bond Girl and Dorothy Dandridge to this….? Are roles for Black starlettes in Tinsel Town really that scarce?
- Best Supporting Actress Winner Jennifer Hudson as “Effie White” in Dream Girls (2006). My favorite of all the wins for the positive image it portrays…but it does underscore how Hollywood loves a big, bold sassy Black woman. OK, I know I’m being hypersensitive but look at the entire album and tell me what you see…
- Best Supporting Actress Winner Mo’Nique as the abusive mother in the title character of Precious (2009). On the Oscar win…Good for her (it’s the message it sends about/to the rest of us that worries me)!
Too often the word “Thanks?” often comes to mind when I think of our Oscar “wins”….The good news is our Actors have fared a bit better than our Actresses (album forthcoming shortly) and the wins still represent progress, however bittersweet.
Either way, it just goes to show we still have a lonnnnnnnnnnnng way to go with the Academy!
For more thoughts on how this peculiar case of “it is what it is” Holloywood makes me feel, check out my post Red Tails, the Oscars and My Love / Hate Relationship with Tyler Perry. Is it me? :-)
With the movie Red Tails taking Hollywood (but not George Lucas or many of us filmgoers) by surprise this past weekend, I thought it might be nice to reflect some of the pop culture that represented the 1940s. I grew up hearing my Dad talk about Dorothy Dandridge, Lena Horne, Bill Robinson, Sandman Sims, Ella Fitzgerald, Count Basie, Duke Ellington and the other stars of his day. Well, after seeing this clip from the 1943 film Stormy Weather as a little girl, I just HAD to take tap lessons! I recently shared it with our daughter who’s constantly practicing her ABDC-inspired dance moves around the house. I told her that Fred Astaire once said it was the best tap dancing sequence ever filmed and even my contemporary teen had to agree with his assessment! I hope you enjoy this legendary performance from bandleader Cab Calloway and, of course, the incomparable Fayard and Harold Nicholas, known on stage as the Nicholas Brothers, as much as I do.
On January 15, 2012, my chapter (Nu Xi Omega) of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc. hosted a Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Day Celebration Dinner for the breast cancer survivors of The Sisters Network. The guest speaker was my Dad, Charles R. Nolley, Jr. (age 94 at the time he gave this speech), a man of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc. (like Dr. King) and one of the few surviving original Tuskegee Airmen. My Soror Sandy videotaped his talk and posted it to You Tube in two installments…Here’s part 1. Enjoy the living history!
Red Tails, the Oscars and My Love / Hate Relationship with Tyler Perry
I love Tyler Perry. Well, rather, I love what he represents — a savvy business man; a self-made successful entrepreneur; a creative talent, a picture of drive and determination; a spiritual being; a Hollywood outsider-turned-insider-turned-power-broker. His is truly an inspirational story and an example that I would love for our kids to follow one day. You go, Mr. Perry! Make that money! Do your thing and keep breaking through those glass ceilings in Hollywood and inspiring others to do the same!
I hate Tyler Perry. Well, rather, I hate what he represents — a monolithic and often buffoonish view of my cultural heritage that suggests all people who look like me are from the hood or the deep South with no experiences in between; a view of my womanhood that suggests that all women who look like me are angry, broken, disgruntled, dysfunctional misfits who hate themselves until they find Jesus and a good man (but not necessarily in that order); a brand of comedy that, while entertaining and sometimes funny, also feels like a modern day version of Shuckin’ & Jivin’, Step N’ Fetchit and the minstrel shows of old, only this time it’s not PC to say so because it’s US telling the so called jokes (as opposed to the fear of feeling the wrath of Jim Crow keeping us silent). As the teens of my generation might say, he needs to check himself, before he wrecks himself — and turns back the hands of progress and the entire Civil Rights movement back 100 years. As a parent, I don’t want my children growing up with a limited view of themselves, nor do I want to shelter them completely from the harsh stereotypes of American culture. So they are not allowed to watch any of his TV shows or movies unless their Dad or I are there to put what they see in context. Similarly, my conscience and the way I was raised to be proud of who I am despite what others might expect me to be, just won’t allow me to spend my hard earned money on his movies or DVDs.
This is the conundrum and the paradox that the Tyler Perry phenomenon presents a lot of us who don’t fit into the cultural, mental, physical, spiritual and psychological mold that is his version of the Black experience gone prime time. Don’t get me wrong. There is a lot of truth, honesty and accuracy in the onscreen world of Perry. And, many of us are thankful to have a voice in Hollywood and a stage upon which great actors like Cicely Tyson, Angela Bassett, Blair Underwood, Lynn Whitfield and others can perform.
The problem is, at the moment, Madea’s Queendom is the only version of our world that enjoys prime time exposure. And it’s a view of our world that excludes those of us who are not from the hood, who are not from the deep South, who may practice something other than a Black Southern Baptist-inspired version of Christianity, who are happily married, who are happily single, who don’t play basketball, who were raised by their own married mother and father in a 2 parent household, who had grandmothers who weren’t fat and constantly cracking jokes while dropping pearls of wisdom at every turn (and who were married to our grandfathers), and who exist despite what Newt Gingrich, the news, reality TV, talk shows and other corners of popular culture, including Tyler Perry movies, might have you believe.
I recently participated in a Facebook discussion about the new movie Red Tails when Roland Martin posted a video of George Lucas saying that Hollywood didn’t want to make the film because of its predominantly Black cast. Many of us whose parents and grandparents were drafted in WWII chimed in. In fact, I posted how I was happy that the story of my Dad and the other original Tuskegee Airmen was finally being told to the masses (especially in his lifetime!). I also noted how the bigger issue was if moviegoers would financially support it.
Many others made excellent points about the struggles of filmmakers like Melvin and Mario van Peebles to get a variety of stories told and voices heard in Hollywood. Several noted how they hope the film does justice to history and the Tukegee Airmen as other war movies like Saving Private Ryan completely rewrite history by pretending we weren’t there fighting and dying for a country that wasn’t always happy to welcome us home. But, what REALLY amazed me was that the majority of the comments centered on the fact that Tyler Perry didn’t make the movie. Some vehemently thought that was a good thing and others just as strongly thought it was a bad thing.
In seeing how the mere mention of his name in the context of a conversation that didn’t really concern him could elicit such a strong emotional reaction from so may, I couldn’t help but wonder why? There are many other Black filmmakers out there and have been for decades. There were many others before Mr. Perry and God willing there will be many others after him.
So why does the mention of his name touch such a nerve? Especially when his body of work suggests that telling a story like Red Tails falls nowhere near his wheel house.
Perhaps it’s not really about Mr. Perry and what he has done or what he has not (yet) done. Perhaps it’s the dual mindedness the mere mention of his name represents. Witness the rant started at the beginning of this post.
Though I wasn’t born when she won the Oscar in 1939, I imagine it’s the same conundrum that Hattie McDaniel presented in her day.
Most contemporary Americans get the point she made in her acceptance speech that she’d rather get paid good money to play a maid than to be one, as well as her desire to always represent herself and her race with dignity. Likewise, most of us were proud to see someone who looks like us shatter a glass ceiling by becoming the first woman who looked like us to ever win a coveted general market honor like an Oscar. But at the same time, I don’t know too many of us who actually liked the role of Mammy, the portrayal of Blacks in Gone With The Wind in general or how she was denied courtesies typically extended to other Oscar nominees and winners simply because of the color of her skin.
As such, the win feels more like a bittersweet, left-handed compliment than a true victory for all…even some 70+ years later. But, it’s still progress! And it could not have been easy to be Ms. McDaniel onscreen or off.
So, I’m thankful for all those Ms. McDaniels and Mr. Perrys out there, as well as those whose shoulders they stand on, and those who will one day follow in their footsteps.
Thank you for daring to live your dream and fighting the good fight, even at the cost of being questioned from both sides of our hearts and brains. Gotta go now…someone turned on House of Payne and I’ve got to go flip the channel (I’ve seen this episode before)! :-)
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Welcome to On The Hook...The perfect place to hang my thoughts inspired by the many hats I wear as a marketing & PR pro, wife, mom and community volunteer.
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