At the 77th Annual Academy Awards, Jamie Foxx received the Best Actor award for his potrayal of Ray Charles. Veteran Actor Morgan Freeman took home the Best Supporting Actor award for his work in Clint Eastwood’s “Million Dollar Baby.” Both men are truly deserving of the honor.
As I heard the news this morning, I thought back to when Whoopi Goldberg won for “Color Purple” and Denzel Washington for “Glory.” It seemed the African-American community was sitting by the television hoping and praying that an African-American would win. And when they did win, it was cause for much celebration because of all the years that had passed since Butterfly McQueen and Sidney Poitier. Now times have changed. There are more African-American directors and more meaningful roles in Hollywood for African-Americans. So are the wins for Messrs. Foxx and Freeman cause for celebration? African-Americans have been there before. It is not big news that we can act.
A few years ago Morehouse College was proud to announce that one of its men had been awarded a Rhodes Scholarship–a first for a Historically Black University. When it happened, I remember many a call to friends and fellow alums to celebrate this news. Another man of the house was awarded a Rhodes scholarship a few years after that and another after that. There were fewer calls to celebrate the second and few if any to commemorate the third. By that time, it was not news. Such news was expected and not out of the ordinary. So when will it be not out of the ordinary for African-Americans to win Academy Awards or Golden Globes?
Filed under: Uncategorized
