Not only was there an upset at the Oscars last night, there was a giant smack down of American values: Racism. It’s not gone. There is no colorblind society. Race was the problem of the 20th century and it is the problem of the 21st century. Crash was given the Best Picture award vindicating a 16 year old blind eye by the Academy to Spike Lee’s Do the Right Thing in 1990. Crash was a fantastic movie. It showed that racism is virtually impenetrable. It showed white angst, black sorrow, white baseless fear and hatred, black self-sabotage. When Terrance Howard’s character tells Ludacris’ character: “You embarrass me. You embarrass yourself.” I wept. It’s something that every middle class Black person wants to say to every 50 Cent wanna be kid on Broadway. The dream of the slave was to read, to write, to learn, to vote, to be free of torture, oppression and subjugation. The dream did not include bling, weaves, hatred of education, disrespect of elders, erroneous beliefs of blackness, or erroneous beliefs of whiteness. This movie also did a wonderful, wonderful thing. It planted a very important seed. It shined a light on something is never talked about: white’s examining their fears. This is the only way racism is really going to be solved. Racism is not a black problem, a yellow problem, brown problem or red problem. It’s a white problem. All others are the victims. The hate that hate produced. Beliefs of white supremacy are just as detrimental to this nation as beliefs of black inferiority. This movie moved beyond liberal guilt and red neck hatred. This movie went beyond super thug and middle class oreo. Hopefully, now that Crash has won such a prestigious award more Americans will see it. A dialogue can start and maybe things can start to change here at home. Then we can truly be the beacon of light to the world. (It will never happen.)
Watching The Boondocks.
WATCH IT NOW. BUY THE DVD.
LONG LIVE ADULT SWIM!
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