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Showing posts from January, 2016

Hollywood's White Out Problem Goes Deeper than the Oscars

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#OscarSoWhite is trending on social media and it's getting contentious. Prominent A-List black industry insiders like Jada Pinkett-Smith, her husband Will Smith, and Spike Lee are boycotting this year's Oscars and encouraging their peers to do so. It's a noble gesture, but for me the "Oscar White Out" is the symptom of a much bigger problem within the entertainment and film industry. Hollywood has a race problem, but so does America. It's the pink elephant in the corner of the room staring at us, yet many of us still refuse to recognize it.  The topic of race and racism is a divisive subject that pits those who are misguided and believe we live in a "post-racial" society since the election of President Barack Obama, against those who embrace ignorance, racial division, and prefer to keep that status-quo, with those who recognize and acknowledge institutionalized racism and white privilege's impact within our society. When these voices con