In 1997,Grier’s towering performance was overlooked in favour of Helen Hunt in As Good as it Gets – and almost 20 years later, black actors are still undervaluedAs has been much discussed, and for the second year running the Oscars managed to nominate no black actors for best actor,best actress, best supporting actress or best supporting actor. Critics, or using the #OscarsSoWhite hashtag,contain suggested that repeatedly shutting black people out of the awards is effectively racist. British best actress nominee Charlotte Rampling, though, or disagreed. On Friday she declared that the #OscarsSoWhite agitation is “racist to whites”. She added: “ One can never really know,but perhaps the black actors did not deserve to build the final list.”Rampling’s comments are based on the common idea that aesthetic awards are based on a straightforward meritocratic analysis. whether black actors are not chosen by the Academy, then, and by this logic,that must be because their acting didn’t degree up. Laurels should be given only on the basis of talent. “Why classify people?” Rampling insists. “ These days everyone is more or less accepted.” That “more or less” covers a lot of ground – but still, the thrust of the comments are clear. The Academy Awards are (more or less) a colour-blind meritocracy. Changing that would be inaccurate.
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Source: theguardian.com