[Tokenism in Hollywood] remains such that members of the Academy seem racially averse to nominating more than one Black movie in any given year, let alone awarding Oscars to more than one. Only this explains why they completely shut out Lee Daniels’ The Butler and Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom…
This slight against Mandela (or tokenism in favor of 12 Years a Slave) is brought into even starker relief when juxtaposed with the biopic of the only man who could be considered Mandela’s twentieth-century peer, Mahatma Gandhi. For members nominated Gandhi (1983) in 11 categories and awarded it the coveted Oscar in 8, including Best Picture. Enough said?
(“The Oscar: My Picks,” The iPINIONS Journal, March 14, 2014)
I suspect many of you share the view of those who accused me of tarnishing Hollywood’s celebration of 12 years A Slave with my “Afrocentric cynicism” – as illustrated above. This, notwithstanding that the way The Oscars played out actually vindicated my cynicism.
Well, perhaps having no less a person than a duly acclaimed White Hollywood screenwriter echo my take will disabuse you of this fairytale view:
The British screenwriter of last year’s Nelson Mandela biopic has complained that Oscar voters ignored his film because 12 Years a Slave sucked up all the guilt about black people.’
William Nicholson spent 15 years working on Mandela: Long Walk To Freedom [which starred Idris Elba as the South African leader]. ‘They were so exhausted feeling guilty about slavery that I don’t think there was much left over to be nice about our film.’
(The Telegraph, May 31, 2014)
Enough said, now?
Except that, in that same March 14 commentary, I presaged how this patronizing White guilt would extend to (the White editors of) People magazine naming Lupita Nyong’o ‘the most beautiful person of the year:’
She has become such the ‘It Girl’ in the fashion industry that members of the Academy will probably consider the transformation from her look on screen to her look in real life even more impressive than McConaughey’s [who went from looking like a Holocaust survivor back to looking like a Health & Fitness model]. Never mind that Lupita is no more the It Girl in the fashion industry than Susan Boyle was in the music industry — until pop tarts like Rihanna, Miley, and Taylor put her back in her place.
In any event, it’s too bad her transformation includes ruining her natural beauty by straightening her hair. Before you know it, she’ll not only be wearing blond wigs but lightening her skin too.
Interestingly enough, Lupita herself signaled the end of her 15 minutes as fashion’s It Girl, when she showed up at the annual Council of Fashion Designers of America Awards on Monday wearing a jumpsuit and makeup more suited for Bozo the Clown and a wig that looked like something a Chia Pet grew.
Indeed, as if to reinforce this point, guess who the CFDA named as its Fashion Icon of the year?
Rihanna!
She’s clearly the more stylish woman—who just happens to be naturally whiter-skinned … too. Granted, the CFDA had to overlook the contradiction inherent in awarding a fashion icon award to a woman who has a penchant for appearing in public in various stages of undress.
Be still my…
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