The Oscars are where a bunch of largely irrelevant people within the industry go to give each other hand jobs and validate their own personal tastes as "credibly superior." So superior, in fact, that nearly every major reviewer in every form of media and beyond it--from car magazines to video game reviewers--have their own version of award shows. These vary from top 10 lists to
literal award shows. I mean, we've had multiple video game award shows even--from
Spike TV's Mountain Dew infused awko-fest, to this
grotesquely massive list. I mean, jesus,
look at all of these awards people can win. Some of which are limited by your nationality, gender, race, or whatever else.
If the Oscars held any bearing on how much money you would earn, I might voice a complaint. It doesn't though. Because, let's be honest, once you start making millions of dollars, anything you earn above and beyond that is literally just fucking excess. And, hell, it's not like black males winning or being nominated doesn't exist--
a black male won an Oscar back in 1963. To put this into context: That was the same year that the Equal Pay Act was put into legislation.
The real reason this has cropped up is because Jada Smith is butthurt over the fact that Will Smith hasn't won an Oscar yet, and decided to blame it on racism, and progressives decided to run wild with it because that's what they do. Not the fact that I can't think of a single film in 2015, which starred a black person in a leading role, that performed above and beyond what is normally expected of film. Largely because outside of the indie genre--which the Oscars infamously mishandle on a regular basis regardless of your race--I can't really think of a film in 2015 that blew me away at all. I can't think of a film released in 2015 without cheating and using Google that in any way, blew my mind. It just felt like films were released because studios were like "oh yeah, we have to do that making money thing." (No, I haven't seen the new Star Wars yet.)
It also doesn't help that the Oscars are more of a reflection of a bigger potential issue (depending on what you consider an issue--I personally do), and that is: The general lack of a significant black presence in Hollywood. Aside from a handful of big time actors, I can't really think of anyone.
Then again, only about 13.2% of the total US population defines itself as
African American. So if Hollywood is to be representative of the whole population on a statistical average, blacks
should be a minority. By basic math.
Yet, that doesn't make it any less troubling, because this issue is far bigger than the Oscars and their ceremonial wanking over golden statues that lose all relevance the following year.
