Rant #1,592: Much Ado About Nothing

I am sure that you have heard that certain members of the Motion Picture Academy of America plan to boycott this year's Academy Awards show, because they feel that they have been excluded once again from the nomination process.

They are black, and since no black actors or actresses were nominated this year, they want to make a statement that they do not accept this exclusion.

They purposely made the announcement on Martin Luther King Jr. Day to put emphasis on their cause.

To them, all I can say is that while these people are hurt that they were excluded from the nominations, they really don't have much of a leg to stand on here.

In other words, their cause is a lot of hogwash.

Members of the MPAA vote on who gets nominated each year in the various categories of "bests."

The MPAA is made up of white voters, Asian voters, Jewish voters ... yes, and black voters too.

They are free to make their own choices, and they can vote for any film or any actor or actress that they choose for these coveted awards.

This year, they did not choose to exclude blacks from the nominations; they simply didn't vote for any to be up for these awards ... and that includes black voters, too, who I do believe are smart enough not to just vote for black films and black actors.

So this cause, led by Jada Pinkett Smith--whose husband Will Smith didn't get nominated for "Concussion," which leads me to believe that this is nothing but a sour grapes type of thing--is such stupidity that I can't believe that various actors and and actresses are buying into this nonsense.

But not all black brethren in the show business community are buying into it. Ice Tea, who was in "Straight Outta Compton," said that he didn't make this movie for an Oscar, he made it for the people.

Sure, he was probably disappointed that it didn't get a nomination, but he accepts its fate.

Others simply don't.

Many blacks won't attend the Oscars this year because they believe they have been excluded from the nominations because of their color, but if Pinkett Smith were sitting right in front of me now, I would ask here this question:

"Ms. Pinkett Smith, we have had a black president in office for nearly eight years now. Who voted him into office? Was it just black voters, or did whites vote him to be our President, too?

It's the same thing here. Whites made their choices, and blacks did too. And blacks and whites chose films and performers that were not black.

So what?

The greater argument that they have is that there are not enough black voters in the MPAA to make the playing field level. In response, MPAA executives have stressed that they have reached out to the black community to join their group, and have been successful in their efforts.

And even in a phony bow to what the black actors are saying, they have gone on record saying that they are dismayed that the nominations aren't more diverse. They used the term "heartbroken," but again, nobody forces anybody to vote for a specific movie or performer, so what exactly are they "heartbroken" about?

But do black members necessarily vote for black films and performers, or do they vote for the best films and performers? I would hope it would be the latter, because if it isn't, Pinkett Smith and her followers are nothing but racists, and they are truly soiling the memory of Dr. King with their idiotic crusade.

Funny, I don't see any Jewish films and performers, nominated, either, but I don't see the B'Nai Brith or Jewish performers getting hysterical about it.

Go home, count your money, and be happy that you are alive when black films and performers have the possibility of being nominated for Oscars.

Otherwise, you are acting like spoiled, racist brats, and is that the picture that you want America and the world to have of you?

I think not.