‘We have enough’: Godfrey renews call for Black entertainers to stop seeking white validation after BAFTAs, praises Image Awards

DEI must die. It’s been far too long for Foundational Black Americans (FBA) and tethers to come up and say things like #OscarsSoWhite. So what? NAACP Image awards are about RAH, Representation, Agency, and Honor. Black people have to stop crying about their snubs at award shows that often overlook them.

American comedian and actor Godfrey is fed up with the idea that blacks have to seek validation from prize shows that don’t care about their culture. Diversity, equality, and inclusion must be rid from the minds of all these people. Their own self-worth far outweighs any notions that they have to receive the same awards. What’s awesome about RAH is that it allows blacks to flourish in their own spaces, gives them the power to decide what they wish to do with their work, and recognizes the achievements of people who go A and B the C of D (Above and Beyond the Call of Duty).

From the cast of Sinners to Viola Davis, there should be ample trophies for art and artists alike that just happen to be of a darker hue than most of the country. Award shows should feature black excellence and an understanding of the landscape. If blacks are shut out from awards, they should create more of their own.

It’s not impossible to see black men and women get together to award each other for work well done. There exist so many avenues nowadays for men and women of color to explore their words and works in their worlds. To whine and complain that the white establishment doesn’t give enough awards to blacks is an insult to their own ideals. It’s fine to accept the white man’s awards, nothing wrong with it. The problem is that only five black men in the almost one hundred years of the Oscars® have won Best Actor. Halle Berry is still the only FBA to earn an Academy Award for Best Actress.

And no black person has ever been awarded the prize for Best Director.

These shouldn’t be grievances, they should be encouragement. They should give FBA the impetus to salute their own. Even black people outside the US who win most of the BAFTAs as colored people should have their own ceremonies, too.

It shouldn’t be a game, but it is. The timing is always the issue. In 1993, Denzel Washington lost the Best Actor Oscar® to Al Pacino. Washington had just finished Malcolm X, arguably his finest hour. Pacino is great in Scent of a Woman but he wasn’t in top form, par excellence as Denzel played the fallen Nation of Islam figure. So what does one do? Mope around and say the white man won’t throw me a bone? Does the black woman just say she’ll never be fully recognized if it’s not a white organization behind the awards?

No. They create. They make their own achievements for their own work. That’s the irony of the NAACP Awards anyway. The NAACP’s founding members included white people. The networks that air the awards are on white networks. FBA will have to create its own infrastructure to ensure their enfranchisement from being locked out from winning or even contention.

Godfrey is right. He even extended the notion from entertainment award shows to restaurants. He holds that if Michelin never points out the excellence of places like Tatiana’s in New York, make up your own system. That’s the entrepreneurial spirit that goes along with the idea that FBA men and women have the opportunity to maximize their own opportunities.

Paul Thomas Anderson made a great movie with horrible themes. He is favored to win on March 15. Ryan Coogler made a cool film that explored better themes. Will he win? Does it matter, he already took home an NAACP Award for his efforts. That should suffice.