Janet Hubert: She Has A Point Though
If you’ve been living under a rock for your whole life and just resurfaced out of the darkness into the light of day and civilization, than you probably haven’t heard about the buzz around the original Aunt Viv from Fresh Prince of Bel Air (Janet Hubert) calling out Jada Pinkett Smith on her boycott of the Oscars, because of the lack of black actors in the categories, or her controversial commentary on Wendy Williams. There’s a lot to discuss and a lot to get to, so let’s dive in!
If you haven’t seen the already famous video posted by Janet Hubert about Mrs. Pinkett Smith’s Oscar boycotting here it is:
Video Courtesy of World Star Hip-Hop (January 19, 2016).
She goes into depth of how petty, selfish, and ignorant Jada’s decision to boycott the Oscars is, and how Jada asking other black actresses/actors to boycott the Oscars “jeopardizes” their careers, and standing in a town that, “you know damn well you don’t do that in”. She explains that there are bigger issues than the Oscars: people are dying on the streets, people are starving, people can’t pay their bills, and so on. She also points out the irony of Jada Pinkett Smith who has made a living, who has made millions of dollars from, “the very people you[she] talk[s] about boycotting”. This reminds me of the double-consciousness expressed in W.E.B. Du Bois’ “The Soul of Black Folk” (1903). Du Bois discusses this veil that is forced upon African Americans, where African Americans have a “second-sight” into the American world.
Du Bois describes this conflicting nature that African Americans experience that, “this sense of always looking at one’s self through the eyes of others, of measuring one’s soul by the tape of a world that looks on in amused contempt, and pity”, which Jada Pinkett Smith is trying to expose, and trying to achieve bringing into light this separation between how African Americans perceive themselves, and how America perceives them to be, but she’s going about it the wrong way. Instead she just comes off as being sore about Will Smith(her husband) not getting an Oscar nomination for his role in, Concussion.
She also ignores the fact that other ethnic groups were not recognized in their outstanding roles too, like Oscar Issac as Poe Dameron in, Star Wars: The Force Awakens. Black Actor/Actresses are not the only ones being snubbed in the categories: Asian actors/actresses, Latino actors/actresses, and even Native American actors (in The Revenant) have been too!
As Janet Hubert also brought up about Will Smith having, “a mouth of his own to which to speak”, and the truth that Will Smith wasn’t even maybe deserving of an Oscar nomination compared to others that were more deserving of the nomination like Michael B. Jordan in Creed, or Idris Elba in Beasts of No Nation. Instead of trying to get a message across, she comes across as a toddler throwing a tantrum for not having things go her way.
Now, let’s turn it over to the other topic of discussion in this posts, Mrs. Wendy Williams! If by some chance you don’t know who this is, this is her:
Is it all coming back to you on who she is? Good! Ms. Janet Hubert came out claws and all recently writing to Wendy Williams a lengthy response to when Wendy Williams kept inquiring Tatiana Ali on her talk show about why Janet Hubert was replaced on Fresh Prince of Bel Air. In the very brutal honest account Ms. Hubert calls out Mrs. Williams for “coming off like a want to be white girl who will never be white”, and she needs to take off “the fake blonde hair”. Wendy Williams is a prime example of not holding up to Du Bois’ code of ownership of one’s self, and taking pride in who they are. Du Bois explains this by stating that that African American man, “would not Africanize America, for America has too much to teach the world and Africa. He would not bleach his Negro soul in a flood of white Americanism, for he knows that Negro blood has a message for the world.”
In both cases, I can’t necessarily fully agree with Ms. Hubert, but I can’t necessarily fully disagree with her neither. Like I said she brings up valid, and good points for each argument she makes on Mrs. Jada Pinkett Smith, and Mrs. Wendy Williams. Especially when it comes to Jada Pinkett Smith’s ignorance, and Mrs. Wendy Williams malicious attacks on her stars that appear on the show, as well as her “white washing” identity crisis.
