An Oscar voter recently
revealed his or her ballot to The Hollywood Reporter. In it, many comments about films were revealing, but none were quite as disturbing as the ones made about the film and cast of
Selma:
But if the movie isn't that good, am I supposed to vote for it just because it has black people in it? I've got to tell you, having the cast show up in T-shirts saying "I can't breathe" [at their New York premiere] — I thought that stuff was offensive. Did they want to be known for making the best movie of the year or for stirring up shit?
How exactly does a cast wearing T-shirts to the premiere of their own movie offend someone? This sincerely stumps the hell out of me. It's their movie, their premiere, and the film is about a period of non-violent resistance to injustice, and you are offended that the cast and crew wore a T-shirt making a statement about an injustice that has deep emotional resonance with them? GTFOH.
Just as I said when folk were outraged with Lebron James for wearing the same T-shirt, if this T-shirt offends you, you are probably a racist. The police choking death of Staten Island grandfather Eric Garner is one of the most egregious public injustices in modern America. When Officer Daniel Pantaleo, who choked Garner to death, wasn't indicted, it cut deeply into the hearts of millions of Americans.
It's simultaneously sad and very frustrating that even one Oscar voter felt that the Selma cast and crew coming together in solidarity around the unjust death of Eric Garner is a case of them "stirring up shit" and somehow clouds their judgment about making an amazing film. If anything, these comments reveal that the understanding gap in America on issues of race, police brutality, and freedom of expression are as big as ever.