I’m Tired of Being First

I’m happy that Sterling K. Brown was the first Black actor to win an Oscar for “Outstanding Male Actor in a Drama Series” last week, at the 24th Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards. HOWEVER, through my joy, it is saddening that it has become like a spectacle when a Black actor/actress, director, or writer wins. We all cheer the night that it happens, Black Twitter is set ablaze for a few days, and then we forget that it really happened until it is time to talk about diversity. I’m tired of hearing the word, first…

Sterling K. Brown has become one of my favorite actors since binge watching This Is Us over Christmas break. That man is so talented and I constantly find myself clapping at the screen when he beautifully executes his lines and manages to make me feel every emotion that his character, Randall, is feeling. To me, that is what an incredibly trained and talented actor should do. However, Sterling is not the first to do so. Many will mention that Denzel Washington is one of the most diversely talented actors. But no one mentions that he has not received the accolades that he is more than deserving of.

I am overjoyed that Hollywood is finally seeing the value in Black actors, directors, writers, and other creatives, but it is starting to feel like tokenism. I fear that the powers of the industry consider each award given to be like charms added to a Pandora bracelet that can be shown off whenever it is time for the conversation about inclusion and diversity. Maybe I’m being cynical, but I am weary of projects being created for the purpose of winning the approval of a historically all-white institution that has excluded Black entertainers since it’s conception. Let us not forget that Hattie McDaniel was the first Black Oscar winner in 1940 for her role as Mammy (***extreme side eye***) in Gone With the Wind (***another extreme side eye***). To add more icing on the cake, she was not allowed to sit with other members of the cast because the hotel had a strict whites-only policy. The kind folks of the hotel did manage to give her a small table in the back, against a wall. This kind of history does not sit well with me. Racism does not just disappear because time has gone by. See this link of Black Oscar Winners.

At the end of the day…