Ever on the lookout for ways in which African Americans are getting more than their fair share, Fox & Friends hosted a black guest who not only disagrees with the #OscarsSoWhite protests he suggested that Oscars are too black.
As Crooks and Liars notes, “After none of the top 20 nominees were black for the second year in a row, many called for a boycott of this year’s ceremony with the #OscarsSoWhite Twitter hashtag."
So, naturally, Fox found an African American to dismiss those concerns and suggest that African Americans are whining for no reason.
KMELE FOSTER: Quite frankly, when I look at the actual outcomes of the Academy Award races over the past couples of years, particularly since 2000, blacks have been incredibly well represented.
In fact, demographically speaking, they are over-represented in some nominating categories. There are folks like Will Smith, for example, who will be sitting this one out, who in past years has been nominated twice, which is far more than most actors in Hollywood.
…We ought to be asking questions to folks that are upset, how many nominations would you prefer to have over the course of the, say, last decade? What is fair? Is it fair to be demographically represented? Should you be represented to a degree that is twice your share of the population?
Foster went on to say that the awards are supposed to be based on merit. “This is not a Benetton ad,” he quipped.
But the point is that many feel that if the awards were truly based on merit, African Americans such Idris Elba, Michael B. Jordan and the cast of Straight Out Of Compton would have been nominated. Also, it’s about casting. As Academy Awards host Chris Rock said in his terrific monologue, “It’s just, we want opportunity. We want black actors to get the same opportunities as white actors.”
Watch the discussion from the February 28 Fox & Friends and Rock’s Academy Awards monologue, below, via Raw Story and Crooks and Liars.
I did watch Chris Rocks’s opening monologue this year because I expected a treat and I wasn’t disappointed. It was edgier than I expected, a good thing.
I’ll have to give Fox News credit. Where do they find these sock puppets to play the role of useful idiots to further their partisan right-wing narrative? It’s almost like the Howard Stern show where he’s never short of rubes to come onto his show to humiliate themselves in exchange for a few moments of notoriety.
The downside to the Oscar controversy is, inevitability, the Academy will bow to political pressure to nominate more blacks which will lead to right-wing propaganda factory Fox playing the anti-affirmative action card to rev up the sort of angst that’s feeding the Der Furor voters.
That’s why I’m more of a People’s Choice sort of guy. Take the award politics away from the elites. Though I’m not sure that would lead to more black awards in our current political environment. Or maybe I’m just too cynical of my fellow citizens. 😞