Black Women in Award Shows

I remember when Taraji P. Henson won a Golden Globe for her role in Empire. In Empire,  Henson plays a former drug addict who was an ex-con named Cookie Lyons. While giving her acceptance speech, she mentioned how she thought she would win for other roles she had previously played, not Cookie. She then precedes to make the comment that "who would have thought an ex-convict would take me all around the globe...I guess the world loves real."  Personally, I didn't think there was anything negative about Henson winning for the role of Cookie. However, my opinion doesn't matter. In this case, the only opinion that matters in Henson. She felt snubbed that it took her playing a crack-selling ex-convict to win her an award.

In 2016, black twitter created the hashtag #Oscarssowhite and black celebrities were encouraged to boycott the show. Celebrities were upset that no black person was nominated for an Academy Award. Actors like Jada Pinkett Smith was upset that her husband, Will Smith, was not nominated for his role in Concussion. This created a lot of buzz and the conversation began. The next year, black films were nominated and some took home the Academy Award. Hence, starting the conversation can have a positive outcome.        

To clarify,not all black people will agree on the misrepresentation in the media. Henson and others raised and eyebrow when she won the Golden Globe for Cookie while other saws nothing wrong. This is the same scenario for the #Oscarssowhite boycott. The host, Chris Rock still hosted the show despite the noise. In other words, sometimes it's not necessarily about race. I think it is about perception, if a certain person feels stereotyped or misunderstood then there is a problem. It just so happens that the majority of the people feeling this way are minorities, which then becomes a race issue.
    
Check out Taraji P. Henson's acceptance speech here!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Yrca4FSKXQ