Criticism over Speeches and Structure at the Oscars
There were themes about race in the Oscar nominations for 2021. Daniel Kaluuya won Best Supporting Actor for his role of Fred Hampton, the chairman of the Illinois Black Panther Party in Judas and the Black Messiah. Judas and the Black Messiah tells the story of how Bill O’Neil, an FBI informant, disclosed information on Hampton and the location of the Black Panther Headquarters. Directors Travon Free and Martin Desmond Roe won an Oscar for Two Distant Strangers in the Live Action Short Film category, which is a story involving police brutality.
Kaluuya attended the Oscars with his mother and sister and thanked them for his support, when he received his award. He also acknowledged Hampton’s son, who is now the chairman on the Advisory Board of the Black Panther Party Cubs, “Fred Jr., and his Mama Akua, Thank You so much for allowing us into your life and into your story. Thank you for trusting us…with your truth.” Kaluuya also praised Fred Hampton and the Black Panther Party for giving free medical care, breakfast for kids as well as educating them. “They showed me how to love myself,” Kaluuya stated, “and with that love they overflowed it into the Black communities and to other communities.”
There has been some criticism about the Oscars on the structure and how it was politicized over race. Ben Sharpiro critiqued Kaluuya’s view on the Black Panther Party stating that many of them believed that freedom came out of the barrel of gun and were involved in criminal activities. Sharpiro also stated that the Black Panther Party rewrote history where Martin Luther King was the bad guy and Malcom X was the good guy. In his column in the Daily Mail, Piers Morgan criticized Regina King’s (The Watchman; One Night in Miami) comment about the George Floyd trial verdict going the wrong way. He responded to King’s “I may have traded in my heels for marching boots,” stating “There is a time and a place for such rhetoric, and I’ve never thought it should be at the Oscars.” On DailyMail TV, Morgan stated, “In their desperation for every single presenter and every winner, to make some worthy lecture and speech to the American public and wider public around the world, they are boring everybody senseless. We don’t want to hear them talking about issues or politics. We want to celebrate movies.”
Morgan also criticized the structure of the Oscars on how “the thrilling finale” was to have the Best Actor nominee go last. In an interview with Los Angeles Times, Producer Steven Soderbergh (Traffic; Erin Brockovich) explained the change with the possibility that Chadwick Boseman might win with his role in Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom. Soderbergh defended these changes stating “…the goal was to really do something different and let the academy sift through the response and decide what they would do going forward.”
There were a few speeches given regarding inequality and the structure was different, as compared to how it was traditionally done. However, it did not destroy the atmosphere of the Oscars. In addition to King’s comment about marching boots she stated, “As a mother of a Black, I know the fear that so many live with, and no amount of fame or fortune changes that.” Trevon Free, who won an Oscar for Two Distant Strangers stated, “On average the police in America kill three people, those people happen to be disproportionately black people…please do not be indifferent to our pain.” Kaluuya did emphasize in his acceptance speech that “we did have a lot of work to do.” There was more to the Oscars than the speeches on race and social justice. There was a need for people to tell their story. The tone did not really come across as a discourse but in a lot of ways it was a celebration, despite Morgan’s claims.
