This piece was written by guest contributor: Mikayla Bartholomew
It’s still baffling, and undoubtedly we all still feel weird about the events that unfolded at the Oscars. We know and understand what has happened, a full “investigation” has been completed and those at fault have been fired but it boils down to two things. One, a cosmic error of fantastical proportions has fallen upon people of color, Black people, again, where they were initially refused their well-earned honor (because come on, Moonlight was the Best Picture of the Year, no question) and in a beautiful and strange turn of events, La La Land, Warren Beatty, the accountants responsible for the envelopes and the producers insured that the correction was made. Two, it is apparent that either a) someone didn’t do their job or b) someone wanted to manifest a little funny business. We’re all hoping for the first option but many would remain unsurprised if the second were to be true.
I say this with the understanding that there are indeed two sets of the envelopes on each side of the stage, you would imagine that they were keeping tabs on the awards as they were being announced.
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You would imagine that there was a rehearsal and an awareness of who each accountant would be giving an envelope to.
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You would imagine that the envelope would be read and verified to insure the right one was handed off.
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You would imagine that there was a clear indication from a stage hand, Stage Manager, production assistant or a producer that they were on the last and final award for Best Picture and that the accountant knew that they were indeed, responsible for handing out the envelope that stated Best Picture.
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You would also imagine that tweeting on the job wouldn’t ruin the whole night, right?
However, that is not what happened. Now we have a scandal, a controversy on our hands, one that no one asked for. One that is overshadowing the importance of the truth in the nature of story-telling. One that is overshadowing the fact that a contemporary indie film about a Black man’s sexuality was awarded Hollywood’s highest honor. There was no slave master in this film, no “yessuh” or “yes’m”, no mammy figure, no coons. It was a film that reflected contemporary blackness and the internal struggle with the Black self and the LGBTQIA community.
For the next week, La La Land and its cast and crew will continually be glorified for their concession despite the fact that they didn’t win in the first place. Warren Beatty, the man who sought to right a wrong, will be vilified in the press following his apology while Faye Dunaway, the one who not only read the card after he showed it to her but announced it, will slink away without saying a word. Moonlight will be considered the secondhand man and their award will be less about their film and the fact that they are the first all-Black cast to attain this honor and more about the mistake that got them there.
This award will forever be emblazoned with a scarlet letter. Will be masked with humble remarks and graciousness for the sake of professionalism. Knowing what we all know about mass media and social networking, it will never be about Moonlight but instead of how they were given forced recognition. After a night of mispronounced names and a repeat appearance of “Hidden Fences,” this feels like a microaggression gone right. However, in order to insure it remains right, we must acknowledge the work that was honored. We must discuss the film for its endeavor into taking control of the narrative, particularly as it relates to Black community and the LGBTQIA world.
Note that their moment was taken from them, it became a spectacle as if to say, “It takes all of this to get a Black person on stage to offer them an achievement”, one most notably reserved for non-POC’s. In the days following, you’ve seen the images, the tweets, the articles questioning the validity of not only The Academy Awards but all sorts of incidents. The Grammy’s, the Presidential Election, the Miss Universe pageant are the talk of the Internet Town. No one is discussing the greatness of Moonlight but rather the focus remains where there was error and we have to acknowledge that and discuss how that dismantles the way they’ve interrupted the system.
In a system that is currently contemplating the urge to remain steadfast in holding “Golden Age” styled works (i.e. period pieces that feature a strong male lead and his ingénue love interest, yes La La Land in the way two cis-white people adore Bla-ahem-jazz culture) or contemporary dramas about the white struggle to be good (Hacksaw Ridge and Manchester by the Sea) as the cornerstone of greatness, we still remain divided. Now this doesn’t mean that these films aren’t fantastic or worthy of being honored, however, it does reveal the narrow playing field. The other side of the sway historically has recognized blackness in positions of servitude, subverted under the dominant or true to the stereotypes that plague the community in the first place (Training Day, 12 Years a Slave). Once more, these films are incredible, notably the best but look at the portrayals of Black existence, look at the particularly pale teams that it takes to produce and write these films. Then, finally, when a Black owned and operated team, featuring artists of color from multiple mediums and a variety of ideologies takes home the gold, it is only so done second hand.
Imagine a sea of white faces cheering for their success (featuring two POC standing in the back) when a fault line shift and a correction suddenly pushes a sea of flabbergasted Black faces in their place. In a Jordan Peele satirical psychological thriller, that’d be a film about the blatant upheaval of white privilege and the deterioration of a system that has only ever been prepared for white to always win. Just saying.
I don’t write any of this to divide us or to say that it’s black and white when it’s really gray (it’s not gray). The division isn’t in the rhetoric above, it’s in the entertainment industry itself and is so reflected by the films nominated this year. They reveal a spectrum with two sides, exclusion and inclusion, black and white, traditional and contemporary. It has been so proven that #OscarsSoWhite can only be but so brown before imploding.
Since the error, it has been less about Moonlight and more about the mistake that put them on the stage taking a “concession” from a team that didn’t win in the first place and that is a problem. We have to hold discourse on why that is so and it doesn’t force a disunion because truthfully, you can’t be purposely divisive when the system is already split. Note how it doesn’t take a village to honor a white man but it becomes a historical upset when Black people are given their due. And with that in mind, we still have a long road ahead because guess what, Black people aren’t the only POC’s ignored in the arts.