Entertainment
How Cord Jefferson Made the Oscars Not So White
A number of weeks ago, an area supermarket owner informed me that he was halfway through my newest book, “Black AF History: The Unwhitewashed Story of America,” and said he had never read anything prefer it. His compliment made no mention of history, research or storytelling, but since I had received the same compliment myself, I knew exactly where he was going.
“I love stories about your family,” he explained. “You never hear stories about regular black families.”
“Yes,” I replied.
That’s all. That’s the whole story.
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On Sunday, “Black screenwriter” and director Cord Jefferson took home the Oscar for best adapted screenplay for writing “American Fiction,” a dark film about “Black novelist”, who was uninterested in writing “The Black Books”. During his victory speechJefferson graciously thanked his colleagues for “trusting a 40-year-old black guy who had never directed anything before” and implored studio executives to “recognize that there are such a lot of individuals who want the opportunity I’ve been given.” However, what caused the most emotion was Jefferson’s press conference behind the scenes.
“There are audiences who are interested in something else.” Jefferson explained. “A story with black characters that will appeal to a lot of people doesn’t have to take place on a plantation. It doesn’t have to take place in projects. There doesn’t have to be drug dealers involved. You don’t have to have gang members involved. There is an audience that presents different representations of people’s lives. There is a market for representations of Black life that is as broad and as deep as any representation of people’s lives.”
Some viewers, each black and white, interpreted the newly minted Oscar winner’s public remarks as an elitist shot at black filmmakers or movies about black people. Others saw Jefferson’s criticism as a part of an ongoing dialogue in Black America about Hollywood’s obsession with “movies about slaves”, white saviors and movies that fetishize Black trauma.
I’m not aware about Jefferson’s internal dialogue, so it’s unattainable to say which side of this argument is more correct. Regardless of his intentions, there was a subtle, fundamental point in Jefferson’s speech that everybody appeared to miss:
Why won’t Hollywood let black people make “white movies”?
While the mainstream media eagerly discusses “Black cinema” — films with majority black actors in leading roles — the converse is rarely discussed (even during the 337-day period of white history months). That’s why no one takes it into account Martin Scorsese a “white director”, although in his half-century profession he made dozens of movies and not using a single black lead role.
White movies are called “films”.
Perhaps the most surprising thing about American Fiction is its lack of extraordinary. It would take 4 hands to count the variety of movies depicting an peculiar white family coping with grief, loss and familial turmoil. Erica Alexander was pretty much as good in “American Fiction” as Meryl Streep in “August: Osage County” or Frances McDormand in “Nomadland” or any of her Oscar-winning performances as a white woman playing a white woman. While Jeffrey Wright’s performance was spot on, it didn’t live as much as his gut-wrenching performance in “All day and night” Or “OG” While Cord Jefferson undoubtedly made a great movie, what’s much more remarkable is that a black filmmaker was allowed to make a movie that did not depend on the tropes mentioned earlier. The fact is that it is a movie revenue from ticket sales greater than double budget just isn’t surprising. Studios that relegate black movies to lower budgets have experienced this studies which show that “African-American films are doing better at the box office.”
In Caucasian cinema, making a great, interesting white film is the surest strategy to gain critical acclaim. Young white actresses can strike Oscar gold by playing a spunky housewife who stares longingly into the distance (truthfully, I can not tell Cate Blanchett from Kate Winslet, which is why I call all young white actresses “Gwyneth Paltrows”). More white actors won (94) than the total variety of black actors and actresses who’ve ever been nominated (76).
But because quite a few Research shows that white audiences are less curious about and fewer prone to empathize with movies that feature “minority cast members” Black characters, Black actors and filmmakers must portray a specific brand of black pain to receive the same accolades as their white counterparts. White audiences cannot see the humanity of Black people unless it falls into one in all 4 categories:
- Be an actual person: One-third of Black’s Oscar-nominated performances feature historical figures, including Ray Charles (Jamie Foxx), Idi Amin (Forest Whitaker), Richard Williams (Will Smith) and Fred Hampton (Daniel Kaluuya)
- Be helpful: You could be a slave (Hattie McDaniel in “Gone with the Wind”; Lupita Nyong’o in “12 Years a Slave”; Denzel Washington in “Glory”) a servant (Octavia Spencer in “The Help”; Sidney Poitier in “Lily of the Valley”, Morgan Freeman in “Driving Miss Daisy”) or just serving the white hero. (Whoopi Goldberg in “Ghost” Morgan Freeman in “Million Dollar Baby”
- A black one who can sing, dance, run, or do something that white people appreciate can almost change into a human being(Mahershala Ali in “Green Book”, Jennifer Hudson in “Dreamgirls”, Cuba Gooding Jr. in “Jerry Maguire”)
- Suffer: High-stakes, hyperbolic trauma is one in all the few lenses through which white people can see the humanity of black people. (Da’Vine Joy Randolph in “The Holdovers”; Mary J. Blige in “Mudbound”; Halle Berry in “Monster’s Ball”)
None of which means Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences voters hate Black people or think less of the movies we make. The best Black art, music, and other types of cultural meaning-making accurately represent Black lives and inform Black individuals who they’re to one another. Conversely, the job of an Oscar voter is to guage black art through the lens of how black people perceive it. And for that specific purpose, the Oscars.
In fact, the most notable achievement of “American Fiction” could also be that white people took notice.
Jefferson didn’t mean that movies about bandits, maids, and slaves were less worthy of attention and praise. It wasn’t even about the need for mid-budget movies (studios were greenlighting white mid-budget movies all the time). His ultimate premise was that everybody deserved to be told because… Or as some call it:
Diversity.
Right.
Inclusion.
That’s all. That’s the whole story.
Pastor John Gray raised greater than just a few eyebrows, with his last performance in Podcastie “Road Future Wifey”, where he shared surprisingly intimate details about his marriage.
A special episode of the fifth anniversary, hosted by Laterras R. Whitfield at Love Story Church in Greenville, South Carolina, gathered a guest list to speak about love and relationships, including Pastor Gray and Aventter Gray, actors KJ Smith and Skyh Black, artist David Banner and experts Tiara Walton, Arian Simone and Dr. Rick Applewite.
The celebration combined these influential voices to find the topics of affection, healing and faith through personal stories and reflections on the evolution of their understanding of relationships.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vfgohwwyydu
The episode included cordial letters to future spouses, unexpected guests’ performances and tribute to unforgettable moments that shaped the heritage of susceptibility, reconstruction and hopes of the podcast.
He also assured the controversial pastor John Gray to speak about his life, profession and relationship.
At some point Gray put all of it on the table.
“I did badly. I ran against marriage. But more than I sinned against my upbringing. I ran against my own weddings, my personal moral code,” Gray admitted in the course of the podcast. “Black women raised me who were hurt by black men and I became what I hated.”
The preacher continued his emotional revelation, dividing the hopes for the longer term of his son.
“My son will be a better person than me. He will be all. He will be free. He will be a faithful husband who will not be verbally or sexually infidel in his marriage,” he said before he pays attention to his wife with a press release that can soon ignite social media.
Instagram ITS_ONSITE published a clip during which he said: “This woman is the only woman in which I was inside. And when I am thirsty. I drink her. I stopped trying things that did not belong to me.”
The pastor confirmed his ongoing internal struggles, stating that “it will always be the basis”, that he must proceed to fight, describing it as a part of himself, which can not disappear.
Gray later explained that this “basic nature” was a “tactic of survival”, which he developed as a baby, which he’s now learning to manage through counseling.
ITS_ONSITE observers weighed In the intimate declaration of Gray.
“Sorry, I’m begging your damn pasting passt? Things that we didn’t have to know … It’s !!!” He wrote one shocked commentator.
Another admitted: “I have a second hand shame”, while the third felt that the pastor “should have been gathered immediately.”
Some Gray weapons, with one supporter noticing: “You have to understand the pastor, they are real people who have the same thought that yes.”
Another simply commented: “I bless you, Lord, because I can’t judge !!”
Gray, who gained importance as an associate pastor within the church of Joel Osteen Lakewood in Houston, maintained a major public profile through his television performances in his own reality show “The Book of John Gray” and his role because the principal pastor Brentless Church in Greenville from 2018.
His sincere discussions on faith, masculinity and mental well -being on various media platforms put him as a related voice in relation to some in religious and cultural space.
Although he has many awards, this isn’t the primary time Gray faced public control.
In March 2019, he referred to the accusations of infidelity, admitting to “emotional romance”, while denying any physical commitment.
“I did not sleep with anyone. There is no child, none of this,” he said during a sermon in a tenacious church, although many expressed skepticism online.
The situation intensified when Gray’s friend allegedly threatened with journalists in Greenville News for reporting a scandal, saying “Cuta of people.”
Gray later distanced himself from these threats, stating that he didn’t accept intimidation and that the person didn’t have an official role in his church.
In July 2022, Gray faced a health crisis when he was hospitalized with the life -threatening of pulmonary embolism and lots of blood clots.
Initially treated on the ICU in Alabama, before he was transferred to Atlanta, serious fear of health prompted her wife Aventter, to demand prayers from followers, declaring “without premature death” and generated significant support from fans and other leaders of religion.
Pastor John Gray and his wife clearly went through the hearth – and lived to explain him. In Podcastie they kept him real, sharing their truth with harsh honesty. He still has this hearth, as Jeremiah locked himself in his bones – not just for the Lord, but for his wife. While the critics invaded one in every of his daring remarks, Aventter didn’t blink. Smiling gently, stood strongly – indefinite and constant – still next to him.
(Tagstransate) Pastor John Gray
Philadelphia Eagles escaping Saquon Barkley recently found himself under fire after his photos and President Donald Trump spread on social media. The couple was photographed before the Eagles’ visit to the White House to have a good time the team’s victory in Super Bowl.
“LOL, some people are really nervous because I played (golf) and flew with the president to the White House,” Barkley wrote on x. “Maybe I just respect the office, not a difficult concept to understand.”
Barkley, the Rushing NFL champion in 2024, mentioned that he played golf with former president Barack Obama and was looking forward to the top of the round with Trump.
“Now you got out of all this policy and you have an amazing day,” he concluded.
Despite the indisputable fact that he doesn’t need to discuss politics, spending time with a sitting president sends a deeply political statement – but like a alternative to do the alternative. The power is addictive, and being in consultation with power will be blinding. And even though it is the appropriate to Barkley to play a golf with anyone who likes it, he doesn’t release him from criticism regardless of accomplishment. Many colleagues from the Barkley team made a special alternative. On Monday, a minimum of 12 Eagles players decided to not take part in the White House ceremony, particularly the playmaker and the Super Bowl MVP Jalen Hurts.
The journey of Philadelphia Eagles to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue was not direct. Initially, there have been questions on whether the team would hand over the chance – they omitted the White House visit after winning the Super Bowl in 2018. Then the team modified the course, allowing him to be known They will take part in the ceremony in the event that they are invited. This week, About half of the eaglesStarters appeared, and players similar to Jalen Carter, Brandon Graham, Zack Baun, Oakobe Dean, Aj Brown and Devonta Smith resolve to not participate. He asked if he would participate within the ceremony in Times 100 most influential people from 2025, seemingly concerned hurts He didn’t provide a solution.
Trump Closeness of sport dates BackLong before his political aspirations have change into a reality. But over the past decade, sometimes his cordial, sometimes tense relationships with black athletes painted a posh picture and provided lots of historical bookmarks.
Mitchell Leff/Getty Images
The Visit of the White House of Orłów takes place after the weekend weekend. Asset Weighs on Shedeur Sanders“Slide in the NFL draft, calling the owners of the band” silly “and demanding immediate pickup of the former playmaker in Colorado and Jackson State. Shortly afterwards, Cleveland Browns chose Sanders in the fifth round, leaving the press secretary of the White House Karoline Leavitt to tell Trump well -deserved loans for managing the trouble.
Black men within the pursuit of power in a rustic that historically excluded them is a nuance conversation. Barkley is now in a box with names similar to Snoop Dogg, Rick Ross and Soulja Boy – who performed on the inauguration in January – and notoriously approaching duo Antonio Brown and Leveon Bella. They are all different levels of noteworthy black men who’ve received intensive criticism for Trump’s allegation.
There is a victim who comes with the president standing next to him, who recently said that “runs the country and the world” and openly flirts with an idea never to depart the office. Barkley doesn’t sign executive orders and doesn’t create a politician. However, simply standing next to Trump or posing for photos in an oval office (just like the star of Los Angeles Dodgers Shohei Ohtani I did earlier this month), the optics of a public performance breaks all the way down to many when the country deals with the consequences of Trump’s policy. Barkley could maintain democracy and equality thoroughly, but apparently it isn’t enough to provide up associating with someone who wages war.
On AP VOTECAST24 percent of black men and rare nine percent of black women voted for Trump in 2024 this week, ABC News survey He stated that the president’s approval assessment was only 39 percent. This means the bottom in 80 years. In the context of President Trump is 78 years old. Public presentation of Barkley’s attachment to the president doesn’t must reflect the sentiment of the country. But doing this when the National African American Museum History and Culture and other institutions of Smithsonians are threatenedIN voting rights to face the best threat in a minimum of 60 years, several programs geared toward diversity is cut and The economy is shrinkingHe says volumes, even when Barkley would never turn to these items. His alternative has already change into a shutter of history by an abnormal association.
Sport may often escape. After appropriately, they represent emotional shelter and provide experience outside the body, which Barkley provided greater than the honest participation of Eagles fans last season. (.) This variety of fantasyland is usually faraway from context and weapons. In the history of sport in America, they never happened in a vacuum. The games were played under Absolute regimeseconomical tails and National tragedies. They at the moment are while society is attempting to survive with every audible call of the present administration. Secondly, audits will not be an accurate or honest date. They are called on the fight line. These are telephones which have never been hidden on last 12 months’s campaign trail. They never lied about who they were and what they intended to do. Apparently Saquon Barkley is effective with this truth.
What Barkley dropped at Eagles last season won’t ever be removed. Similarly, what he did for runners’ lifePerceived as a dying position in football, you can’t forget. Philly won’t be the dominance of Patrick Mahomes and Kansas City Chiefs in Super Bowl 59, which ended for all purposes and goals before Kendrick Lamar honored the scene throughout the break. Come to a training camp, focus again on who raised the Lombardi trophy in Santa Clara, California in Super Bowl LX. Barkley weekend with Trump will likely be a distant memory – but it surely continues to be a memory.
Part of the story of Barkley stands next to Trump in some of the dividing times within the history of America – quite a feat of the country with out a lack of times and problems. And vice versa, that is why Jalen Hurts’s Choice also says. How they each moved in times like those, don’t prevent the appointment of the Sław Pro Football Fame gallery. And each men stand within the Eagles’ Cloakroom to make them protected. Football teams are equally unique and a muted community in American culture. Barkley is after all among the best in his work and directly contributes to the success of his team. And although he was removed from the one eagle player who visited the White House, the celebs have different advantages because they bring about different duties. Even if the connection within the workplace isn’t affecting, some on this locker room may not forget concerning the symbolism of the moment.
“Most guys in the cloakroom understand that guys have different views. So this will not affect how they go to work,” said the previous NFL and Scape player. “But if I was his close friend and I do not agree with the views of administration, what I do, I do not know if we could be friends. Colleagues who do work, yes. Friends, no.”
Barkley was clearly joyful that he was within the presence of Trump. It isn’t clear, nevertheless, whether he thought it was necessary to be there. In 1991, the previous Chicago Bulls election scorer is legendary provided a handwritten note To the then President George HW Bush and his administration, they turn to the centuries, inhuman treatment of Black Americans. It was not waiting for Barkley, but with the withdrawal of the present administration, proposals for transforming gauze right into a tourist trap, an economic fusing wave brought on by tariffs, weapons of education and growing fears of national security due to unacceptable group chats, the entire world has questions for Trump. Barkley must have a minimum of one.
Barkley isn’t an activist or a number one voice in a black community. However, when an individual willingly placed in scenarios that require activism and changing agents, so criticisms appear. Capitulation for administration, which has not demonstrated care or respect for individuals who appear like Saquon Barkley and other marginalized communities, won’t bring the NFL star to Utopia where racism and injustice stop to existNo matter what number of teeth show in the images next to Trump. Or perhaps yes, but definitely not for the masses – lots of which support Barkley every week.
Barkley probably had the sport of the season when he splendidly reversed the Jacksonville Jaguars fleet. Everyone could ask how he did it. But in terms of canodling with Trump, the query isn’t.
It’s more, why should it do it in any respect?
Jim Dyson/Getty Images for ABA
This week, Celebrity Beauty honored Spring Equinox: Sun-Promsed Skin, Shades of Blonde and Rosa Glam. Although winter favorites haven’t been completely lost (Enter: Frostbitten Blush), in the approaching season more full of aesthetic moments.
Serena Williams gave the tone, wearing pine curls barrels, applying it WARNING MATTE LIPSTICKWhile Alicia Keys puts the skin on a very powerful mug and face braids. JT, in a platinum wig and massive French suggestions, obtained a van for her morning music video. Meanwhile, FKA Twigs opened its Eusexua trip in a half -shaved skull with braids from the back.
Jourdan Dunn reported to Pixie cuts, while Uche Natori overthrown his whole grain bean, but they each marked this season as the very best time for brief hair. As for Lizzo and Justine Skye? The talented two are ready to indicate the skin when the temperature heats up.
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