Will Smith y Su Boycott a Los Oscars: A Black Motion Picture Superstar Complaining About Exclusion? (Reblogged from www.RubenBlades.com.)
To whom it may concern.
I find
it troubling that the current complaints about possible discrimination
or oversight resulting in fewer, or none non-white nominations for the
2016 Oscars seem to concentrate only on black performers. Latino
performers are BY FAR the most neglected sector of the U.S. film and
television industry.
Black participation has always been bigger in
those fields and is, as experience shows, assured to exist.
On the other hand, we Latinos are still considered foreign goods.
The roles assigned to blacks are usually
superior in stature as protagonists than those offered to Latino actors.
There are innumerable examples of this. Where is the outrage? Where is
the solidarity with discriminated Latinos?
How can a Latino performer aspire to an award
for excellence, such as an Oscar, if we do not receive opportunities to
act in roles of importance? The Latino community represents the BIGGEST
MINORITY GROUP in many cities and states in this country. Yet we
account for a low representation on current TV shows and films, and
receive almost no attention from white AND black directors, producers,
casting agents and studios, except when there is a need of a gardener, a
whore, an illegal, a drug trafficker, a maid, or an idiot of sorts,
usually in the lowest caste position and most likely to be killed, or
made an example of, to benefit the white, or black star of whatever type
of show it is.
It bothers me that the Academy reacts to
perceived discrimination by seemingly concentrating only on what Spike
Lee, Will Smith, or Jada Pinkett Smith correctly point out. While
agreeing with their position, I would add this:
Hey, Spike! Hey Will! Not only blacks are
being snubbed. Check the Latino award scoreboard for the last twenty
years and tell me how many of us you've seen on that Oscar stage,
presenting or accepting awards, as opposed to blacks. Oh, I'm sure we
were at the Oscars, cooking the food you eat, cleaning the s*** you
leave behind, making sure everything runs smoothly, for the enjoyment of
an Industry built as an exclusive and private non-Latin domain.
The bigger discrimination today, by film and
television, is directed almost exclusively against the Latino performer.
And this is not me crying over spilled milk. I'm one of the lucky ones
working, but my experience has been that access to better roles is not
something we can expect, because of our accent, or looks, or just for
being Latino.
Numbers and facts do not lie. Check them
yourselves. The Industry wants our cash but cancels our breaks by
denying us a fair access to opportunities. Writers do not include us in
scripts because the Industry has no interest in representing us as equal
members of the American Society. First it happened to blacks. Now it is
applied to Latinos.
I have been a member of the SCREEN ACTORS
GUILD since 1975. I joined because I was singing in TV commercials. This
made it compulsory to join SAG. Today, many Latino actors and
actresses are not members of the Academy. How could they be? Extras
can't expect it. We are, however, members of the U.S. society and we
support it in many ways, not just through hard work, but also by going
to the movies and watching television. It could prove a more powerful
boycott possibility, the importance of Latino spending dollars, or
votes, as this upcoming election might prove once and for all.
The issue is not just Will Smith not getting
nominated for an Oscar for his fine performance in Concussion.
It also includes the fact that latinos don't
remotely have access to the opportunities needed to achieve his
possibility.
–Emmy-nominated and Grammy and Latin Grammy-winning singer, songwriter, actor, and activist Rubén Blades.
