Creighton Montgomery, a real cool brother I know fromone of my classes, passed this to me the other week and I thought I’d share it.You might agree with it and you might not.
My theoretical stance regarding the Grammy awards is thatmost blacks that received Grammys only won as a pacification means. Many of theartists on the forms as nominees were some of the same artists from theprevious year. I feel that White America who, by the way, controls the mediaand who chooses Grammy nominees only gave awards to ease the racial andcultural tension that would have escalated from non-whites not receivingawards.
As youlook closely, you can see how race plays a factor in the selection of thesekinds of awards. For instance, Denzel Washington who many Americans, both blackand white, have a great amount of respect, only won an Oscar for playing arogue cop. Also, Halle Berry who is intellectually intriguing and talented onlywon an Oscar for giving sexual pleasure to her white co-star, Billy BobThornton. I wonder if America is asleep or blind to the fact that race andculture still play a dominant role in how an individual is treated no matterhow well they perform.
In his”I Have a Dream” speech, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. speaks on the shamefulcondition of America and how it has signed a promissory note that hasdefaulted. The negro has received a bad check marked “insufficient funds.” IfDr. King was here today and saw the ill treatment of black Americans by theGrammy Awards Committee, he would definitely form a united front and marchagainst the injustice of racism and cultural inequality in the entertainmentbusiness. The Constitution states, “We hold these truths to be self-evidentthat all are created equal and endowed by the creator.” How can we be equalwhen we are not treated equally?
When it comes to the awards ceremony, did whiteAmerica intend for the Constitution that they wrote which was truly for whitepeople by white people to transcend the racial and cultural boundaries?
