Julie Delpy has a long, illustrious career that includes Avengers: Age of Ultron and 2 Days in New York. With the fervor that has enveloped the Oscar season due to the dearth of African-American actors among the nominees for an Academy Award comes all sorts of soundbites from people on both sides of the spectrum.
Recently, actress Jada Pinkett-Smith called for a boycott of the Oscars to highlight these constant oversights. Boycotting award shows to prove a point is nothing new. Marlon Brando did so, as did a number of other actors for varying reasons.
In 1989, Hip Hop artists boycotted the Grammys for not airing their awards segment on television. Ironically, that movement included Jadas husband, Will Smith, who then known as one half of the duo DJ Jazzy Jeff and The Fresh Prince.
The right to boycott is a protected right of every citizen of this country. So too one’s right to voice their opinions in either support or criticism. Being that the Sundance Film Festival is the last major international film gathering before the Oscars it has become a hive of discussion on both sides of the diversity issue.
(Photo Credit: USA Today)
It seems like whenever Black people speak to collective experiences dealing with racism and white supremacy, here comes somebody to place their circumstance side-by-side in an attempt to bolster that position at the expense of the black narrative.
In other words, we get thrown under the bus.
Last week Academy Award-nominated actress Charlotte Rampling recently told Europe 1 Radio that a boycott of the Oscars by black actors would be, …racist toward white people. She then released an apology, but what was done, was done.
But if that wasnt stupid enough, amid concerns by Danny DeVito and George Clooney supporting the stance that Hollywood needs to change its image, along comes Julie Delpy with this zinger;
Two years ago, I said something about the Academy being very white male, which is the reality, and I was slashed to pieces by the media, she told told The Wrap on Friday. Its funny women cant talk. I sometimes wish I were African-American because people dont bash them afterward.
Its the hardest to be a woman. Feminists is something people hate above all. Nothing worse than being a woman in this business. I really believe that.
Well, if you ever wanted to know what white privilege in Hollywood looks like, there it is. Deply, a white woman, throws a movement under a moving bus to elevate her own cause.
While wage inequality in Hollywood is a real demon to be dealt with, for any person of European descent to say it would be better off if she were Black is demeaning, insulting and totally ignorant of the facts.
A white woman wins the Oscar for Best Actress and Best Supporting Actress far more often than not. Black actors and films featuring black themes not being nominated is the norm.
A simple inventory of the facts should have informed her reasoning of the myriad reasons why that was not only a stupid thing to say, but whose tenets support racism by belittling its significance as the single greatest sin in American history.
Last I checked, feminist weren’t being shot dead in the streets and brutalized for their belief.
It’s just another example of why White People Be Buggin
