It appears gone are the days when the Oscar (Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences) used to be a “white-only-event”, prompting Chris Rock to tag the event as a “million white men marchâ€.
But that was several years ago. Last night, two African American won two of the four major acting awards: Best Actor (Forest Whitaker: The Last King of Scotland, left photo) and Best supporting Actress (Jennifer Hudson [American idol castoff]: Dreamgirls, top photo).
Since Denzel Washington and Halle Berry broke the racial barrier at the Oscars in 2002, more blacks have been successful at the Oscars- Jamie Foxx (Ray Charles) and Morgan Freeman (Million Dollar Baby) in 2004.
Is the movie academy finally shedding his monochromatic image?
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Sidney Poitier won an Oscar back in 63…
February 26, 2007 at 6:31 pm
Yeah, Sidney Poitier was the first African-American film actor to win an Oscar to my knowledge.
March 3, 2007 at 5:47 am
I’m aware that Sidney Poitier won an Oscars way back in 1963 and the first black to do so; however, after he did – the “door closed” until 2002. To me that was when the Oscars’ racial barrier was truly broken. This is not to downplay the magnificent works of Mr Poitier; he will forever remain the indisputable pioneer and role model in Hollywood.
March 3, 2007 at 3:10 pm
Let us hope that Hollywood is shedding this image. But the other day I saw a documentary featuring several black actors and they were actually going through some sort of advertising directory where directors were putting out casting calls for various roles in sitcoms and movies and kid you not almost every one of them called for white or Hispanic actors, maybe every 20th required an African-American actor… one of them the these catsing calls said “need rough looking black male with gold tooth”….It was either on CNN or 60 minutes. But-hey, maybe those Oscars might help change this.
March 4, 2007 at 10:42 pm