Hush up Jesse Jackson!
Jesse Jackson is being a poor sport again. He's whining about the lack of diversity at the Oscars this year...well, more specifically, the lack of African Americans. He says it doesn't reflect the reality of our population. But let's look at reality Jackson. This is a very diverse year for the Oscars. Why are you putting up a stink? Let's see...we have...
Forrest Whitaker and Will Smith, both African American, as leading actor nominees. That's 2 out of 5...a larger percentage than the percentage of whites to blacks in America.
Djimon Hounsou and Eddie Murphy, both black, as best supporting actor nominees. Again, 2 out of 5.
We have Penelope Cruz as a best actress nominee. 1 of 5.
We have Jennifer Hudson, African American, Adrianna Barraza, Hispanic, and Rinko kikuchi, Japanese in best supporting actress roles.
We have lot's of nominations for Dreamgirls, a story about African American singers.
We have lot's of nominations for Pan's Labyrinth, Children of Men, and Babel, all made by Mexicans. We have Yimou's Curse of the Golden Flower in there somewhere too (not in the foreign category).
We have extremely diverse, global, cultural items and actors for the various shorts and documentaries.
So grow up and stop whining! How dare you call it all white. Why don't you encourage your fellow African Americans to pursue excellence with hard work like Bill Cosby (and Will Smith in his flick) instead of blaming other people for non-problems and dragging your brothers down in to hopelessness and depair. It is people like you, Jesse, that make progress harder.
So, am I being too hard on Jackson or is he being lame? What do you think?
Forrest Whitaker and Will Smith, both African American, as leading actor nominees. That's 2 out of 5...a larger percentage than the percentage of whites to blacks in America.
Djimon Hounsou and Eddie Murphy, both black, as best supporting actor nominees. Again, 2 out of 5.
We have Penelope Cruz as a best actress nominee. 1 of 5.
We have Jennifer Hudson, African American, Adrianna Barraza, Hispanic, and Rinko kikuchi, Japanese in best supporting actress roles.
We have lot's of nominations for Dreamgirls, a story about African American singers.
We have lot's of nominations for Pan's Labyrinth, Children of Men, and Babel, all made by Mexicans. We have Yimou's Curse of the Golden Flower in there somewhere too (not in the foreign category).
We have extremely diverse, global, cultural items and actors for the various shorts and documentaries.
So grow up and stop whining! How dare you call it all white. Why don't you encourage your fellow African Americans to pursue excellence with hard work like Bill Cosby (and Will Smith in his flick) instead of blaming other people for non-problems and dragging your brothers down in to hopelessness and depair. It is people like you, Jesse, that make progress harder.
So, am I being too hard on Jackson or is he being lame? What do you think?
posted by Anonymous at 11:54 AM
6 Comments:
Well, after reading the Variety article that you cite in your post, I don't really think Jesse's being all that ridiculous. He clearly acknowledges the higher percentage of black nominees, he's just pushing for more equality in Hollywood overall. That's his message, his hope, his cause. You can say he goes too far sometimes, and, to be sure, he does. But I think in this instance, after reading that article, I don't see anything that he says that raises my ire even the slightest bit.
uuuummmm.... Jackson's actually not saying that there isn't enough diversity in the Oscar's this year. he's actually saying this is one of the best years for diversity, if i'm reading the article correctly. however, i do think he's being kinda ridiculous saying the Academy should change its practices or bylaws or whatever to include more African-Americans. that's just silly. as i understand it, criteria for being in the Academy is not based on race whatsoever, so it's stupid to make changes that are based solely on race. if only Vietnamese people were able to do a quick-zoom, that'd be a different story. so to answer your question, N3, you're being a little hard on ole' Jesse.
That's the point PM...he's saying the Oscars (more specifically the industry) is too white. But the people in the Oscars show us who's out there in movies, and it's a diverse crowd.
I will agree that Hollywood is sort of an odd choice for the Rev. Jackson to be pointing his racism detector at. I'd think he'd be more interested in adding color to government or ivy league colleges or things like that.
right, DW; things that have a little more race applicability that Hollywood. but it seems to me that whites are a majority in Hollywood because whites are a majority in America. there's no getting around that, and it's stupid of Jesse Jackson to try. it's like saying to a tree, "you shouldn't have branches, leaves, or a trunk, because it offends me." silly.
Jesse Jackson is completely full of it. There's a lot more recognition for minority acting and such, even to the point of tokenism. If somebody tried to tell me that Denzel Washington really deserved that Oscar for Training Day over, say, Tom Wilkinson, I would tell them to go back and look at every other performance of his and re-evaluate his "acting". And the Oscar-voting population is what it is. There will be more blacks and other minorities as they get nominated for various things. Like all other race-related issues in America, it is going to be getting better, but it's going to be slow going.
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