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June 2002
Oscar and the Race Card
I'm glad she won. Really, I am… I'm glad Halle Berry won Best
Actress. And I'm glad he won… maybe even more than I'm glad that
she won. I'm glad that Denzel Washington won Best Actor. But the reason
I'm glad is because I think they deserve to be honored for the work
they did in film during the calendar year 2001, not because in 2002,
as suggested, the Academy decided it was time to honor a race.
In the weeks leading up to the Academy Awards all we heard about was
the crashing of ceilings, the breaking down of walls. Suddenly, this
inescapable structure, this building of ceilings and walls of impenetrable
steel in which all African American actors had been housed since the
birth of cinema was about to be knocked off its foundation because three
of their brethren, two with an outstanding chance to win, had been nominated
in the major acting categories. The world was about to change.
In the press, this became about sending the globe a message, which
seems a bit ludicrous when a mere 4200 Academy members are deciding
who goes home with the little gold statue. This was not 100 million
people voting on a black Presidential candidate. Yet, this was presented
as racism, as a situation that somehow we all were responsible for.
That somehow society was to blame that the great Sidney Poitier, to
that point, had been the only black man or woman to be honored in a
top acting category. Lost in the translation is the fact that the people
voting for or against the black actor are their peers; the producer
who hired them, the director who lobbied for them to be in their film,
the actors who worked alongside them. Still, theories were abounding.
Why stop there though? This year, following a continuing trend, of
the twenty nominees in the acting and supporting acting categories,
fifty percent were from overseas. Could Oscar be racist and anti-American?
Let's face it, the Academy Awards are little more than a fashion show
for the public and a popularity contest for those in the industry. There
are two types of Best Actor and Best Actress winner. The first is the
'Industry Darling' winner. This is the actor or actress who is hot in
that moment because he or she delivered a solid performance and is respectful
of the industry. (The actor living in France because he hates everything
Hollywood stands for need not apply.) Under this category find Tom Hanks,
Julia Roberts and, most recently, Halle Berry.
The second is the 'Make Up Sex' winner. This goes to the actor or actress
who has been nominated repeatedly and shunned just as many times despite
his or her standing as one of the greatest executors of the craft who
has ever lived. This person will win for a performance less superior
to that of one of his or her greater works. In this category see Al
Pacino losing for The Godfather: Part II yet winning for Scent of a
Woman, Paul Newman losing for The Hustler, but winning for The Color
of Money and most recently, lo and behold, Denzel losing for Malcolm
X, yet winning for Training Day.
So here we are, 139 years after Mr. Lincoln signed the Emancipation
Proclamation, thirty-nine years after Mr. King stood in front of a memorial
of Mr. Lincoln and stated, "I have a dream," thirty-seven
years after Mr. Marley sang about one love, one heart and mere months
after watching people of every race and creed come together like never
before in the aftermath of the greatest tragedy this nation has known
and we take the most watched event in the world and disguise it as a
historic day in race relations.
Halle made history by being "the first," Denzel made history
by being the "first since." I'd rather look at them as being
the 74th actress and actor to be awarded the most prestigious symbol
of excellence in their field and hope and pray that we're beyond all
this other nonsense. They are two great actors and it should end there.
I'm not naïve enough to say that we've risen above it all, but
we have to be past this, don't we?
One world, one love… Mr. Marley, thirty-seven years ago.
Enjoy the Issue,
Richard Botto,
Editor in Chief / CEO of RAZOR Magazine - The Definitive Men's Lifestyle Magazine
www.razormagazine.com
