| The 70's smooth singing soul group, "The Stylistics" , have a lyric in one of their recordings..."I can't seem to make you happy no matter what I do." That seems to be the case with the Black Bourgeois media...Elvis Mitchell, Greg Braxton, Nelson George, Donald Bogle, and the list goes on. The recent Academy Awards set a precedent when two African Americans won the Best Actor and Best Actress awards. So what's the problem? Well, now some of these people and others are saying that the roles Halle Berry and Denzel Washington won with are "negative" roles. Some believe Mr. Washington deserved more consideration for his bio pic roles as Rueben "Hurricane" Carter and Malcolm X. Why does he win for one of his least commercially successful movies and one where he plays a "Bad Cop"? Does America see Blacks only in a negative image? Halle Berry, who is glamorous, is not considered "Black" enough by some Blacks. This was evidenced by the close-ups of her white mother during her acceptance speech as well as the torrid love scene in Monster's Ball between her and a racist white bigot. There are many people asking why did these two African Americans have to win for such negative roles? Was it because they were interesting, well done, and fine "acting" jobs? No matter what, Blacks and minorities will always complain and then they wonder why they're not invited to the party. There will always be some kind of ethnic awards such as the Soul Train Awards, the NAACP Awards, the Nappys, and the Fetchits... The Academy Awards, however, was a night in the National spotlight and, in my opinion, it's a shame that a bunch of people (who will never be happy with anything) were trying their best to spoil it. Hattie McDaniel, Sidney Poitier, Whoopi Goldberg, Cuba Gooding Jr., Denzel Washington, and Halle Berry, Jamie Foxx will always have and be known as Academy Award winners and that's good enough for me. |
