While I’m trying so hard not to jump for joy over Florence Kasumba’s Hauptrolle in Tatort, I’m also wondering why she hasn’t gotten a much bigger role before now.
Hollywood had to discover her amazeballness before the German media could eh?
Granted, I’ve never watched her on German TV, but even before seeing her in Wonderwoman, I knew she was German because I had read about her when I first moved.
Then we see her beside the King and suddenly, we can’t get enough of her. She’s like the next Grace Jones and kicking ass.
Before I get into my topic of the day, lemme just say how shocked I was to learn that black people didn’t get anything other than the stereotypical roles on German TV. If you are black and an actor, your roles were never beyond the usual black American or Canadian or south African playing a rapper, a dancer or a poor person. And the irony of it being you as a black actor can do none of the above. But hey, it’s the typical character of a black person oder?
Hell, Jonathan a local actor from an article I read had to study to get a French accent because his role involved a black French speaking man. These are men and women who were either born here or have lived here all their lives and know no place else but could barely get roles as Germans. Like how the hell can a black person be German right?
Anyways, before I digress as per usual, I have to admit that I was quite surprised when Black Panther got an Oscar nod.
Don’t misunderstand me I love the movie and I can never tire from seeing it. My kids and their kids and their kids’ kids have got to see it too. But we know the weird movies that get into Oscar and never did I think this movie would make the cut.
Every one is going on about how it doesn’t deserve an Oscar and my question is what exactly does deserve mean?
Does race play a large part in people’s annoyance at the Oscar nod? Duh!
Anyone who isn’t black and had nasty things to say about the movie was just releasing hatred on the fact that a full black cast marvel movie made it big. That’s a no brainer.
For someone to sit down and dissect the entire movie in a negative way just shows you how angry they are that this very blackest of black movie hit a massive success. All the movie sites that mentioned it had racist comments from every angle and it was incredible to see the pain they were feeling.
This is a movie full of very dark skin men and women. This is a movie where the Caucasian cast was the minority. This is a movie that broke the record of getting an Oscar nod for a marvel movie and the hurt they are feeling is beautiful to watch.
Of course some even say it got a nomination because of diversity.
Me? I can name a whole bunch of black movies that should have gotten Oscar nominations and didn’t but you don’t see anyone crying over that.
So why are people so mad about Black Panther, a fictional story about a country in Africa, untouched by western colonization and being more developed than the western world?
While you answer that, ask yourself what ‘deserving of an Oscar’ means exactly.
The truth is white America cannot comprehend the idea that black America can thrive without them, that black America can be successful without them, that black America can build a better world without them. They have controlled the narrative for so long and now people are standing up in support of the community and this scares them. If the community can contribute to the success of a film alone, imagine the magic they can create.
Does Black Panther ‘deserve an Oscar’? Hell yes. It’s not an Oscar film, but it made the list. If you choose to think that diversity had anything to do with the nomination, that’s your choice.
If I had to pick what movie gets the price from the best picture list, I would say Blackklansman because not only was the directing great, the idea that someone actually lived that story is incredible.
So what if Black Panther got a nomination? Everyone should chill out and relax. It’s just entertainment.
