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While most of us were rooting for either BlacKKklansman, Black Panther or even Roma to win Best Picture at last night’s Oscars, the Academy had other thoughts.
These folks, who are roughly 87 percent white and 70 percent male, decided that Green Book was the best of 2018. You know, the white savior film where a white racist man that uses the N-word freely can teach a Black man about his Blackness by eating fried chicken.
Fantastic. Driving Miss Daisy 2.0.
Written and directed by white men, one who has a history of exposing his penis “as a joke” and the other a Trump supporter who had to apologize for a 2015 anti-Muslim tweet, Green Book centers on Dr. Don Shirley, a world-class African-American pianist who goes on a concert tour in the Deep South. He realizes that he needs a driver and bodyguard to protect him and ends up hiring Tony Lip, played by Viggo Mortensen. Somehow, the two men learn about racism and the power of friendship.
Translation:
Outside the terrible framing of this film through a white lens and the complete disrespect to the actual Green Book, the drama has also come under fire as Shirley’s family has stated that the film is based on “lies” and they did not give the filmmakers their blessing to make this film.
Sadly, Oscar winner Octavia Spencer is an executive producer of the movie too, which she has defended saying that these white men should be able to tell their own stories.
Girl, not at the expense of Black folks, but OK sis.
Clearly, I wasn’t alone in my anger for Green Book taking home the night’s biggest surprise. Black Twitter had some serious words for the Academy and they were not pretty. Take a look: