The ABC 23 news team sent a camera guy over to our studios Tuesday night and asked my thoughts on Jada Pinkett Smith’s call for a boycott of the upcoming Academy Awards. While comedy is a great hook, my performance was a complete embarrassment. I may have even been funny but I was a buffoon performing like a circus clown. I should have taken the subject seriously and clearly explained how this isn’t about Black folks. This is about Pinkett Smith and her allegedly gay husband, Will Smith. (But we’ll get to that little nugget in a second!) It’s clear the Academy snubbed Smith and perhaps purposely for his controversial portrayal of the real life doctor who unearthed the reality that football severely damages the human brain. But his systematic snub wasn’t because he’s black but because the motion picture “Concussion” is poised to change what soccer moms all over North America think about their billion dollar industry. And if mothers won’t sign the permission slips for little Howie Long’s to play North of the River Football, the sport and industry dries up. THAT conspiracy theory makes much more sense then this silly intentional racial claim. Remember, the biggest racial problems between the races remains ignorance. The races don’t really know one another and haven’t yet realized that we all have more in common than we do differences. Having said that, one must realize the median age of an Academy voter is 62 years old. 62!!! And 92, yes 92 percent of the Academy is white. Now ask yourself, of that demographic, how many do think actually saw “Straight Outta Compton”? Is that a racist act or human nature that…”Birds of a feather flock together.” … into the same movie theaters!!!!! As a black man am I disturbed that no one of color, Black,Hispanic, Asian or Native American was nominated in a year when so many where deserving? Yes. Is this the most effective way to cure the problem? That depends. Is your goal to seek racial justice or are you just pissed you won’t be working the Red Carpet and taking home a SWAG (Stuff We All Get) bag worth more than $80,000? And now a reputable actress, Alexis Arguette, claims Will Smith’s first wife walked out on him after witnessing him making love to Hollywood mogul and “Fresh Prince of Bel-Air” Creator Benny Medina. Bad time to take on Hollywood, Jada!
