Oscar Snubs The Great Debaters for An Academy Award

24th January 2008

Oscar Snubs The Great Debaters for An Academy Award

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It is the Oscars, and far be it from me to give that institution any credibility; but a total shutout of even nominations for The Great Debaters is a return to the same old Academy disregard.

The Great Debaters

I outright boycotted watching this program for years as they routinely snubbed Black films and actors (The Color Purple, Do The Right Thing, Malcolm X, etc). Not that I’m ever foolish enough to believe everything is hunky dory, but I thought they had come around as of late to at least giving a measure of respect.

But not even one nomination for The Great Debaters seems like the same ol same. I thought it was a shoe-in for a Best Picture nod. Figured it probably wouldn’t win; white folks seem set on Atonement, and that may very well be a deserving film; but how does Great Debaters not even get nominated?

It got a nomination from the Golden Globes, won a Broadcast Films Critics Choice Award, and a mired of other nominations and wins; and not even one pat on the back from the Academy.

Next, I thought Denzel did a great directorial job, and thought he might get nominated for best director. A couple of other possibilities I saw was maybe Junree Smollet getting a nod and possibly they could get something for the costume design.

The problem has been and remains, when you have a demographic of voters who choose the nominees and then winners, who are part of demographics that largely don’t go see certain types of films; how can they vote in favor of something they haven’t seen? Also there’s the ‘relating to’ factor of it which goes against certain films and characters even if a pretty significant number do see certain films.

I mean sure, white people go see Glory and The Last King of Scotland because they’re told from largely white perspectives, often with the “Great White Hope” saving the day(an ideal white people identify with). Or a Denzel can win in Training Day, an action movie about a crooked cop - a film about a Black dude riding around in a Cadillac, smoking weed, robbing and shooting folk – yeah that’s so far off from how the white masses view Black men. That was a real strectch for them to get into. [that’s sarcasm for those who aren’t so quick on the feet. No, for real, people all the time read stuff like that and completely miss the satire]

Look, I’m not saying that the bunch of the Academy voters sat up and consciously said to themselves, “I’m not watching or voting for that movie cause I don’t like that Black stuff”; I just think they weren’t that interested as a whole and even when watching, it doesn’t have that same internal impact that it does for Blacks and maybe other minorities on a sociological level.

But the bottom line is the Oscars can kiss my ass because they blotted out pretty much my only reason to watch.

Ruby Dee in American Gangster

Oh yeah, Ruby Dee got nominated (for a movie about a Black Gangster surprise surprise), so maybe I’ll try to time it to flip over and see if they’re going to shock me by giving it to her.

When you have a whole year of Black people in movies, directing movies, writing movies and we don’t get but between 1 and 0 nominations in most years, that’s them saying we don’t really have no talent, nor any stories really worth hearing. And that’s the disrespect I could never stomach from them.

Oh, unless the story is something about how “It’s Hard Out Here For A Pimp”. Cause again, gangsters and pimps pretty much sum up Black folks.

My Review of The Great Debaters.

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1 On January 24th, 2008, D. Yobachi Boswell said:

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2 On January 25th, 2008, Shelia said:

Hey Yobachi, same here. I pretty much ditched the Oscars way back when they cheated Denzel out of his Oscar for Malcolm X, probably even before. We know what’s up with them. I don’t even expect the Oscars to do the right thing anymore.

The only reason Dreamgirls was high on their list was because they can take us singing and dancing.

3 On January 25th, 2008, D. Yobachi Boswell said:

Yep, they love us as long as we’re running and jumping or singing and dancing.

Ya know, just how the white slave owners in Roots loved the fiddler.

4 On January 25th, 2008, Barbara J. Spraggins said:

When I first heard that the movie was not even nominated, I was a bit surprise. I, as you have come to expect that we will never get the much deserved credit entitled us. We also need to understand the White psyche, a movie like the Great Debaters might suggest that Blacks possess some degree of intelligence. As you suggested, it is easier to catagorize Blacks as thugs, pimps, drug pushers. This is the reality that Whites prefer to see Blacks depicted in. I have also long ago stopped watching the Oscar nominations. I feel that they do not reflect the achievements of Blacks in the movie industry.

Even if The Great Debaters has not won an Oscar, damn, they should have at least been nominated. This is yet another sad portrait of our so-called diverse society.

5 On January 25th, 2008, Shea Justice said:

I never watch the Oscars and it doesn’t surprise me that there were no nominations. One of the biggest lies the media tells people is the Hollywood is liberal and they trot out the Clooneys and the Pitts in different places as examples of their liberal progressive minds. Yet those same people never address the inherent racism in their own profession. Racially now, blacks are expected to accept a compromise on our images and accept ongoing second class status. . I call it the Clinton effect. Ruby Dee gets nominated finally. Angelina Jolie gets a nomination for playing a biracial woman and we’ll get Oscars as long as we participate in films that show the worst of us. But we’re winning so be happy.

6 On January 25th, 2008, D. Yobachi Boswell said:

Barbara, “so-called diverse society” is right.

The melting pot is more like different colored blocks in a bowl.

7 On January 26th, 2008, D. Yobachi Boswell said:

Shea Justice, most of the creative people are “liberal” but liberalism isn’t devoid of racism. Most people are concerned with their own interest, and seeing much less confronting the racial status quo doesn’t serve the interest of white liberals.

It takes humanitarianism to really care about racism when it doesn’t affect you.

8 On February 24th, 2008, David Mesirow said:

As a white person who watched “The Great Debaters,” I found it to be an excellent and progressive film, and I was suprised that it received not even one nomination from the academy. It was very well done, had important themes, and showed black people at their best - both the characters in the story and the actors portraying them. The music, the costume design, the writing, the acting, the direction, and the production, in my opinion were all worthy of Oscar nods. What the reasoning behind the Academy’s snub of this film was might point to the institutional imbalances in the personnel who reward these nominations and ultimately these victories, which in turn calls for rebalancing the composition of the Academy’s personnel.

9 On February 25th, 2008, D. Yobachi Boswell said:

Fat chance David, The Academy is merely a modified good ol boys club.

10 On August 3rd, 2008, Beth House said:

that the Academy Awards would “snub” the Great Debators only proves once again they are so wrong. The Color Purple also was snubbed — and has proven a truly great picture.

My family has been extremely moved by this movie — I thank Denzel Washington for having the sight to direct and produce. It is a truly wonderfully acted movie. It is one I will re watch.

Thank you

Beth House
Spring, Texas