Does anyone think Viola Davis was robbed of her Oscar?

[Anonymous]

Meryl Streep just donated $10,000 in honor of Viola Davis to a charter school in the Rhode Island town where Viola Davis grew up. I am sure that will provide more fodder for debate.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm AA too and disagree PP. The movie industry racist and sexist industries I've ever been part of and I'm no Al Sharpt

Black man here. So Hollywood made a movie about AA maids. It was celebrated, received multiple Oscar nominations, made a lot of money, won best support actress but since Viola Davis didn't win Best Actress, its racist? I'm not trying to say that there isn't racial and gender bias in Hollywood. But using Viola Davis not winning Best Actress is not a reason to scream racism. Save that for something more important.

Crying racism at insignificant events (like the Oscars) belittles the true claims that "regular" people have in their everyday lives. It's like the "Boy who cried wolf".

For my AA friends that have been toiling for years out in LA for them it's not insignificant or crying wolf - it's just more salt in the wound. They care deeply about how AAs are portrayed but they can't get their stories told. Look at all the garbage freaking George Lucas went through to get Red Tails made. It's incredibly difficult for minorities to be recognized in the movie industry - you can't compare it to any other industry or field.

I think you are commenting on the wrong topic. We're not talking about getting stories told. We're talking about winning an award here.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Oh god, the whole freaking movie was racist IMO. "The Help" was a freaking white woman. Ugh. Does no one see how awful this book was? The whole thing makes me so uncomfortable. The way that everyone was patting themselves on the back for giving Octavia Spencer the Oscar was so cringe-inducing...the standing ovation...when really they were just applauding themselves for being magnanimous enough to give a black woman an Oscar. Ick ick ick.

I am not the only person who feels this way, am I?

I don't understand why anyone thinks The Help was racist. It told a story about women whose lives were completely overlooked during that time period. It was sad and moving. Do you think it was racist because the book was written by a white woman? Isn't The Help her story as well as the story of the maids?

Viola Davis's performance will stay with me for the rest of my life. Meryl Streep's performance was another of her many virtuoso performances. Nothing new or different there. The academy made a mistake.

[Anonymous]

Looks like Meryl is acknowledging the mistake with the donation. It makes me ill.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm AA too and disagree PP. The movie industry racist and sexist industries I've ever been part of and I'm no Al Sharpt

Black man here. So Hollywood made a movie about AA maids. It was celebrated, received multiple Oscar nominations, made a lot of money, won best support actress but since Viola Davis didn't win Best Actress, its racist? I'm not trying to say that there isn't racial and gender bias in Hollywood. But using Viola Davis not winning Best Actress is not a reason to scream racism. Save that for something more important.

Crying racism at insignificant events (like the Oscars) belittles the true claims that "regular" people have in their everyday lives. It's like the "Boy who cried wolf".

For my AA friends that have been toiling for years out in LA for them it's not insignificant or crying wolf - it's just more salt in the wound. They care deeply about how AAs are portrayed but they can't get their stories told. Look at all the garbage freaking George Lucas went through to get Red Tails made. It's incredibly difficult for minorities to be recognized in the movie industry - you can't compare it to any other industry or field.

I think you are commenting on the wrong topic. We're not talking about getting stories told. We're talking about winning an award here.

I bolded the part in PPs statement that I was responding to. Winning awards IS related to getting stories told.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Meryl Streep just donated $10,000 in honor of Viola Davis to a charter school in the Rhode Island town where Viola Davis grew up. I am sure that will provide more fodder for debate.

With Meryl's wealth, I actually find this amount an insult.

[Anonymous]

Who is Viola Davis?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Oh god, the whole freaking movie was racist IMO. "The Help" was a freaking white woman. Ugh. Does no one see how awful this book was? The whole thing makes me so uncomfortable. The way that everyone was patting themselves on the back for giving Octavia Spencer the Oscar was so cringe-inducing...the standing ovation...when really they were just applauding themselves for being magnanimous enough to give a black woman an Oscar. Ick ick ick.

I am not the only person who feels this way, am I?

I don't understand why anyone thinks The Help was racist. It told a story about women whose lives were completely overlooked during that time period. It was sad and moving. Do you think it was racist because the book was written by a white woman? Isn't The Help her story as well as the story of the maids?

Viola Davis's performance will stay with me for the rest of my life. Meryl Streep's performance was another of her many virtuoso performances. Nothing new or different there. The academy made a mistake.

The Help is NOT a true story. To me, the book panders to white people's desire to get over their guilt for centuries of hate and oppression. Like saying, "look, see, we HELPED". (and that's the impression I also had while watching the self-congratulatory ovation members of the Academy gave Octavia Spencer). I'm white, for the record. It made me very uncomfortable. It's basically a feel good movie for white people, and that's why it did so well. I don't deny the performaces by African American actresses in the film were great. The source material blows though. A lot of people more articulate than I have gone on at length about this problem.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/19/books/19masl.html

http://ideas.time.com/2012/02/02/is-the-help-the-most-loathsome-movie-in-america/

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Meryl Streep just donated $10,000 in honor of Viola Davis to a charter school in the Rhode Island town where Viola Davis grew up. I am sure that will provide more fodder for debate.

With Meryl's wealth, I actually find this amount an insult.

I did too

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Looks like Meryl is acknowledging the mistake with the donation. It makes me ill.

Why does it make you ill? It may be a mistake that Meryl won the Oscar, but it doesn't have to be because of racism. There are numerous examples of Oscars going to the undeserving winner (Paltrow and Dench were referenced a page back). It wasn't because of racism then and it isn't now.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Meryl Streep just donated $10,000 in honor of Viola Davis to a charter school in the Rhode Island town where Viola Davis grew up. I am sure that will provide more fodder for debate.

She made the donation before the Oscars, so no one can claim it was a consolation prize.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Oh god, the whole freaking movie was racist IMO. "The Help" was a freaking white woman. Ugh. Does no one see how awful this book was? The whole thing makes me so uncomfortable. The way that everyone was patting themselves on the back for giving Octavia Spencer the Oscar was so cringe-inducing...the standing ovation...when really they were just applauding themselves for being magnanimous enough to give a black woman an Oscar. Ick ick ick.

I am not the only person who feels this way, am I?

I don't understand why anyone thinks The Help was racist. It told a story about women whose lives were completely overlooked during that time period. It was sad and moving. Do you think it was racist because the book was written by a white woman? Isn't The Help her story as well as the story of the maids?

Viola Davis's performance will stay with me for the rest of my life. Meryl Streep's performance was another of her many virtuoso performances. Nothing new or different there. The academy made a mistake.

The Help is NOT a true story. To me, the book panders to white people's desire to get over their guilt for centuries of hate and oppression. Like saying, "look, see, we HELPED". (and that's the impression I also had while watching the self-congratulatory ovation members of the Academy gave Octavia Spencer). I'm white, for the record. It made me very uncomfortable. It's basically a feel good movie for white people, and that's why it did so well. I don't deny the performaces by African American actresses in the film were great. The source material blows though. A lot of people more articulate than I have gone on at length about this problem.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/19/books/19masl.html

http://ideas.time.com/2012/02/02/is-the-help-the-most-loathsome-movie-in-america/

Ah, I was just coming in to post these links, but since you've already done it, I'll just add these for humor:
http://www.jest.com/video/147108/the-2012-oscar-nominees-with-kids-part-1 (Start at 00:46 to see kids briefly reenact "The Help.)
http://www.good.is/post/flowchart-which-movie-will-help-you-alleviate-your-white-guilt/

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Oh god, the whole freaking movie was racist IMO. "The Help" was a freaking white woman. Ugh. Does no one see how awful this book was? The whole thing makes me so uncomfortable. The way that everyone was patting themselves on the back for giving Octavia Spencer the Oscar was so cringe-inducing...the standing ovation...when really they were just applauding themselves for being magnanimous enough to give a black woman an Oscar. Ick ick ick.

I am not the only person who feels this way, am I?

No you aren't. I am conflicted. The focus of the movie makes the white woman the hero. I cringed. It was like I was reliving the horror of "Ridin' Miss Daisy " all over again. Our culture is really most comfortable with de-sexualized black women who can cook some good fried chicken. I am a northern white woman, btw.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Meryl Streep just donated $10,000 in honor of Viola Davis to a charter school in the Rhode Island town where Viola Davis grew up. I am sure that will provide more fodder for debate.

She made the donation before the Oscars, so no one can claim it was a consolation prize.

So, that's why she got the Oscar. Huh. Politics. And 10k? Please, Did Viola ask her to do this? Otherwise, this comes under the heading of "stealing someone else's thunder". !0k is chump chand to the likes of a Streep. She does seem like this very genuine person--but to donate chump change to your "opponent" charter school BEFORE the Oscars, wow that's just too manipulative. And don't say: no good deed goes unpunished, because whatever--if she had given 100k, that would have been meaningful. What can a school really do with 10k? Buy a few flashy computers to distract the kids with? Pish-posh.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Oh god, the whole freaking movie was racist IMO. "The Help" was a freaking white woman. Ugh. Does no one see how awful this book was? The whole thing makes me so uncomfortable. The way that everyone was patting themselves on the back for giving Octavia Spencer the Oscar was so cringe-inducing...the standing ovation...when really they were just applauding themselves for being magnanimous enough to give a black woman an Oscar. Ick ick ick.

I am not the only person who feels this way, am I?

I don't understand why anyone thinks The Help was racist. It told a story about women whose lives were completely overlooked during that time period. It was sad and moving. Do you think it was racist because the book was written by a white woman? Isn't The Help her story as well as the story of the maids?

Viola Davis's performance will stay with me for the rest of my life. Meryl Streep's performance was another of her many virtuoso performances. Nothing new or different there. The academy made a mistake.

The Help is NOT a true story. To me, the book panders to white people's desire to get over their guilt for centuries of hate and oppression. Like saying, "look, see, we HELPED". (and that's the impression I also had while watching the self-congratulatory ovation members of the Academy gave Octavia Spencer). I'm white, for the record. It made me very uncomfortable. It's basically a feel good movie for white people, and that's why it did so well. I don't deny the performaces by African American actresses in the film were great. The source material blows though. A lot of people more articulate than I have gone on at length about this problem.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/19/books/19masl.html

http://ideas.time.com/2012/02/02/is-the-help-the-most-loathsome-movie-in-america/

Ah, I was just coming in to post these links, but since you've already done it, I'll just add these for humor:
http://www.jest.com/video/147108/the-2012-oscar-nominees-with-kids-part-1 (Start at 00:46 to see kids briefly reenact "The Help.)
http://www.good.is/post/flowchart-which-movie-will-help-you-alleviate-your-white-guilt/

*SNORT* Amazing.