If you were to list the things wrong with "Hollywood," it would be a ponderous and awesome list. There is so very little right about it, that the list of wrong is probably approaching the definition of the mathematical term infinite.
So, to come to some kind of feigned horror about the racial inequality about Oscars, really stretches credibility, even for those in Hollywood. In a place that produces the Jenners, the Kardashians, Jack Nicholson, Nick Nolte, Gary Busey, Lindsey Lohan, and continue on with the list, being concerned because they did not recognize enough black people is really kind of pitiful.
Of course they did not get it right. They left getting it right in even the smallest way, around about June 11, 1979 when John Wayne died. It was all kinds of boogered up even then. It is a place of narcissistic and damaged people reflecting and magnifying the brokenness and tragedy inside themselves. It is a wasteland of inappropriate attention and undeserved adoration. It is vainglory come to life and a playground of the worst of humanity. It has been since the 1920's.
Acting like it is shocking and frustrating it does not get racial equality right, in 2016, is hypocrisy at it's highest. And, leading that charge, are some of the most significant "success" stories of Hollywood. The not so Fresh Prince and his wife, boycotting the Oscars, over others not getting nominated. It is not because Will did not get nominated for playing an African doctor fighting the second most narcissistic organization in the US, the NFL. That would never be the case. Because this year, damn it, it has just gone too far.
This is an industry that is notable for its destructive and horrific behavior. It is hedonism, excess, waste. Look, I am not rich. I don't have the kind of money it should take to have the issues that these people have. But, I have to tell you, I surely do. They are folks like all the rest of us. They have people they love that get sick, die. They have people they love that betray them, hurt them. They have people in their lives that damage them deeply. They have reasons for the crazy, just like all the rest of us.
We, the little people, just keep a chip on our shoulder about it. How can you throw your life away, when you have everything you ever dreamed of? (River Phoenix, John Belushi, Kevin Farley, Marilyn Monroe, the list is too long.) How can you throw away your work and career, after you worked so hard to earn it? (Lindsey Lohan, Mickey Rourke, Corey Haim, Katt Williams, Covain, Morrison, Joplin, the list is too long.) It is inconceivable, because they have money, fame, you know, everything we all want.
Except, it is not what we all want. We want money because we think it will remove stresses and issues from our relationships. We want fame because we think it will surround us with people that care about us. We want what they have, because it solves all our problems. In truth, that is all just a lie. It just magnifies our problems. Money becomes temptation and false invulnerability. Fame becomes isolation and fear of the crazies. What they have is a tortured version of the life they imagined, just like ours.
The Oscar outrage really pisses me off. I don't care how bad the Smith's feel about being left out. I could care less if Spike Lee gets nominated for anything. I could care less if "Straight Outta Compton" got overlooked. Those people, everyone associated with them and those projects, were so well paid for that work, it does not matter. It is not what is wrong with Hollywood, nor is it even close to the most obvious symptom of what is wrong with Hollywood.
I don't care, and neither should the other white folks in America. The good folks of color in this nation have been so bushwhacked that I am not sure how to get the message through to them. Hollywood is not your issue. And you will not solve it from that direction. Want a prediction of what is going to happen in Hollywood, academia, business, military and all other areas of our nation over the next 20 years? People of color are going to be more and more isolated and under represented.
If education, security in the home and relationships, and economic viability are not addressed in communities of color, nothing about boycotts, outrage and frustration will matter. The false notion that the world is doing this to THEM is killing the communities of color. You can claim I had white privilege all you want, but it did not feel very privileged shoveling crap out of the cow barn, and chicken house. It did not feel very privileged, scraping 1/4" of tobacco gum off my hands at the end of the day. It did not feel very privileged studying and working to make a career in the military, with nothing more than the high school education I got from my little FFA school in the boondocks.
I may have had the benefit of the doubt from many people, but I chose to do something with the benefit. I worked, did the things that it takes to build a life, build security, struggle to get through. I lost family and friends. We fought cancer, addiction, betrayal, bad choices, unfair treatment, failure, lies, upheaval. Yet, we continued to be focused on our family. We worked hard to make our children see that the world could be better for them, should they choose to pursue it.
No one gave us anything. We went and earned what we had, what we needed. Nothing of value ever came on green tinged paper with dead Presidents on it. Money came and went, still does. Only love, care, concern, connection ever mattered. Because of that, we focused on being better than we were.
We wanted more education for our children. We wanted a better life for them. To that aim, we taught them that work was required. We showed them that they would not be given anything of value in this life. Everything of value in this world is earned. We taught them that they had a Creator, a Father God. He loved them, and that was the important aspect of their lives.
We taught them that successful people were those that were loved, that had deep relationships with others, that connected. We taught them respect of others, respect of themselves and respect for the order of things required to exist in peace in the world. We have never heard our adult children ask why something was important, or why they should do something for themselves. We have heard why is it so hard, why is it such a struggle. That is an extremely important distinction, and it is missing on both sides of the Oscar "outrage."
It is not important, and it should not be a care. Why it is hard and a struggle is obvious. If it is truly your craft and your career, it is difficult to master and to apply. Just because it is theater, acting, it is still a profession. It is work worth doing well, if you are doing it for your profession. That is true of any endeavor. When there becomes a feeling of entitlement or deservedness, you have moved past a vocation. No one owes me praise for my good work. I appreciate it, certainly. But it is not owed me. I don't deserve it, because I was supposed to do it to the best of my ability. That was the agreement I made.
I am owed respect as a human being. I am owed opportunity as a human being. In that, there is a huge issue in Hollywood that I support fixing. But, more qualified, better educated, better prepared people coming behind the current professionals, is the only answer to improving the situation. It will not improve just because we protest about Hollywood.
Living the thug life, the redneck life, while perpetuating the stereotype that Hollywood trades on to make money, does not prepare or equip one to be successful. If you don't learn, don't make those coming behind you better, don't push and reinforce the correct values, the correct approach, nothing will improve. It will change, change is inevitable. But it will get worse. That is what is happening, Detroit, Compton, Flint, Rochester, Memphis, Ferguson, Little Havanna, it is getting worse.
Want to be outraged, get outraged about the waste of the talent and potential of millions of young people with no rudder, no example to lead them to better and to different. I don't blame the young men and women that are degrading to nothing in our judicial system. It is their own doing and their responsibility, but I don't blame them. They are emulating what they see in the role models they have. Why is poverty entrenched and immutable in Appalachia? Why are the hollers so depressed? Because there is not a premium on education, there is not a culture of betterment. It is not a black or color thing, it is a belief thing.
Butcher Holler has the same disease that Detroit and Flint have. It is not about color, and it is not about Oscar. But, if you are pissed you didn't get your Oscar nod, instead of trying to make old white guys with buckets of money change their mind, go make a difference in the lives of those young people. Make them different to the point that even the old white guys can no longer ignore the evidence before them. That was the secret of Dr. King. He made it obvious, to even old white guys, that people of color could be reasoned, patient, upright, and worthy of consideration and respect.
Tupac, Big E, .50, Snoop, that is not exactly convincing anyone to respect or consider that lifestyle and approach worthy of respect. I have nothing against those men, and I don't know enough to condemn them. But, what they broadcast, what they portray for others to idolize, it is poison for their communities. Keeping it real should not translate to making it permanent. But, it is becoming permanent, and that ought to shame all Americans.
Whenever we decide to fix this, all of us, regardless of color, and work harder on educating and enriching our children to prevent that false reality from being their metric, their yard stick, their dream, we will restore America. Electing Hillary, Trump, Carson, Cruz, none of them will do that. Unless we make them do more than 10 second sound bites and the latest gotcha. Liking or hating Obama is no qualification for fixing anything. Neither is being rich, nor well educated. But, compassionate, concerned and realistic, those are good qualities. Find any candidate in the list with those qualities they are expressing?
No one ever gave us anything, we had to work for it. Including making America better. Don't like the Oscar mess? Me either, but it is a distraction and false flag. But, if you want to fix it, however minor it is, best start with those coming behind you. It is the only solution. It does not change today, it does not get better by devolving, as the segments of poverty are devolving. The Mafia was not glamorous, but it was the subject of great story telling. Why would the Hood be any different? It is nothing to aspire to. Yet, it what we glorify, and then sit befuddled as to what makes a Justin Beeber happen. God help us all, but just look at Justin Beeber.
Read something yesterday about Carl Brashear, one of my personal heroes, who I had the opportunity to meet. He was just a guy like me, but he made those around him better, as he made himself better. When more of the world is emulating Carl Brashear than Kanye West (please, God help us all), we will be making a difference. If you want better, earn it, make it. Stop asking for it and expecting it. I marvel at how little the community of color knows and understands Dr. King and the movement he represents. It is the worst thing the establishment has ever done to those communities, taking that knowledge away from generations. And shame on the adults, generation after generation, that allowed that knowledge to die in their communities.
Tell your children to pull up their britches, learn how to read and write, get a life skill, a trade, and raise their children to be better, be more. Regardless of their color, they will bless you with riches beyond having 50 Oscars. If we don't soon, nothing will recover the path of descent. I won't be boycotting the Oscars, though I don't know if we will be watching. Train up a child in the way he should go, even when he is old, he will not depart from it. Proverb 22:6. Thousands of years old, and every bit as true and important today as it was then.
I have been working on making programs and education paths that make people better at what I do, than I am. I might spend that time working on that instead, putting my own preaching to action.
GLYASDI
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