Just a thought

This should come as no surprise to us that those that are selected to vote for the nominees of the Academy Awards, for the most part- are Caucasian. Only 2 % are Black, and less than 2 % are Latino. We tend to gravitate towards those to whom we can  relate. Some kids gew up listening to American Bandstand, and I grew up listening to Soul Train. I only watched American Bandstand when there was an R&B musical guest that I liked.  I remember, how, in the 90s I used to watch Martin, Living Single, and New York Undercover, while all my white friends watched Friends, Cheers, and Seinfeld. I thought Martin was funny as hell, and when I asked my white friends why they didn't watch it or any of the shows I watched, they all said they couldn't relate to them.  As a result, generally, white people will gravitate toward those movies and actors  that can speak to them. And the majority of them are the judges of the most coveted award given to actors/ directors, cinematographers, etc. 

During my lifetime, who has been deserving of an Academy Award  and has been ignored?
Cicely Tyson- The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman
Angela Bassett-What's Love Got to Do With It.
Diahann Carroll-Claudine
Diana Ross- Lady SingsThe Blues
Viola Davis-The Help,  and Doubt
Taraji P. Henson- The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
James Earl Jones- Claudine
Whoopi Goldberg-The Color Purple
Angela Bassett-Waiting to Exhale
Sophie Okonedo -Hotel Rwanda
Adepero Oduye- Pariah
Kimberly Elise- in every single movie I have ever seen her in ( 'For Colored'Girls', 'Beloved', 'Diary of a Mad Black Woman' , 'Woman Thou Art Loosed.' Few people can pull off “downtrodden” like her.

Will Smith – Six Degrees of Separation, and The Pursuit of Happyness
Danny Glover - The Color Purple
Laurence Fishburne-What's Love Got to Do With It.
Samuel L Jackson- Do The Right Thing
Derek Luke- Antwone Fisher
Djimon Hounsou-Amistad
Michael Wright -The Five Heartbeats
Thandie Newton-Beloved
Ving Rhames  - Rosewood
Lynn Whitfield-  in any movie she has ever been in.

   Do you agree? Am I missing anyone?

On this day,

in 1940,

Hattie McDaniel known for her supporting roles became the first African American to win the Oscar Award for her role as 'Mammy' in the movie 'Gone With The Wind'. Not only was she the first African American to receive this award, but the was the only woman to have received it until Whoopi Goldberg received the same award for her role in the movie 'Ghost'.


(and this week, in 2012 Octavia Spencer, won The Academy Award for a similar role of a black woman subservient to a white woman.)

Proof

 A friend of mine was giving me a hard time because he knows I'm looking for black women as my first choice to date.  I've known him for almost half my life. He's a really cool guy. A white guy. He means no harm. Cool family. They've always treated me like I was their flesh and blood. I've never commented on the fact that I have never seen him with a woman who wasn't skeletal and white, with blonde hair and blue eyes, and now that I live in Oregon, he suggests that that's what I should go for as well, since I have yet to find a black woman with whom there's a mutual interest, that's worth getting to know. And then I asked if he would ever date  a woman who wasn't  blonde. Then he said the following:

" I would date a black woman."

I said, "yeah,  right."

He said, "yeah, I would. I would date Halle Berry in a heart beat."

I said, "The average male, if given the chance, would date Halle Berry. If you wanna prove to me that you would date a black woman, chose a woman like Whoopi Goldberg."   

(no desrespect to her. She was the first woman to pop in my head when I thought of someone who was the polar opposite of Halle Berry)


          

Y'all ready for Colored Girls?

IN THEATERS NOVEMBER 5
I hope and pray that Tyler Perry gives Ntoshake Shange's  Obie Award-winning play "For Colored Girls Who Have Considered Suicide When the Rainbow Is Enuf" the justice it so righteously deserves. I would like to think that Loretta Devine, Kimberly Elise and Phylisia Rashad wouldn't attach themselves to a movie unless it was of quality.