For the second year in a row, the Oscars have an all-white nomination pool for their best acting awards. As a result, Will and Jada Pinkett Smith, along with director Spike Lee, have all said they will not attend the award ceremony.
Some stars, like actress Stacey Dash, disagree with their actions. Dash believes if black entertainers did away with events such as the BET Awards, they wouldn’t have the problem of an all-white nomination pool at the Oscars and other similar events.
Stacey Dash’s comments reminded me of a day back in high school biology. Mrs. Williams, my freshman year biology teacher, was explaining the importance of Black History Month. Married to a black man and the mother of two black children, Mrs. Williams was the closest thing we had to a black teacher. As such, she was the teacher in charge of the Black Student Union, a role she was very passionate about. A white classmate, Robbin, raised her hand during Mrs. William’s explanation and said, “I don’t understand why there is a Black History Month. There’s all these days for other races, there’s also Mexican Appreciation Day and Cinco de Mayo. Where’s White Appreciation Month?”
See, people honestly believe that black people shouldn’t have shows like the BET Awards or the Soul Train Awards. There are actually people who believe that television stations like BET and Centric shouldn’t exist. People who believe magazines like Ebony and Jet shouldn’t exist. Stacey Dash believes if we were to just get rid of the BET Awards tomorrow, then the Oscars would all of a sudden start to nominate black actors. I’ll tell her and those that agree with her that she is wrong.
Why do these all-black entities exist? These publications and award shows exist because black people were not originally recognized for their achievements in pre-existing publications and award shows. These entities were created to give blacks the recognition they deserve, because we already know that predominantly white institutions like the Oscars won’t recognize us themselves. The fact that the Oscars have nominated only white actors in the best acting categories for two years isn’t surprising. They have had the same problem since the beginning of their creation and it still hasn’t been fixed. The reason the BET Awards exist is because shit like this has happened since the creation of these award shows and will continue to happen.