Opinion | Let’s stop congratulating white mediocrity
Gracie Fleischman, sophomore political science major
The 69th Primetime Emmys aired Sept. 17, and once again, most of the affection rained down upon mediocre white directors, actors and TV shows.
However, history was made with four wins from people of color: Sterling K. Brown became the first black actor to win outstanding lead actor in a drama series since 1998, and Riz Ahmed is now the first South Asian man to win an Emmy in any acting category. Also adding to the history books were Donald Glover, who became the first black director to win outstanding directing for a comedy series, and Lena Waithe, who become the first black woman to win in the comedy writing category, according to the Emmys website.
It’s taken a long time for people of color to win these awards, when mediocre white people such as Katherine Heigl and Kiefer Sutherland have won in the past. White-dominated shows like “Sex and the City” have won Emmys for its relatable drinking “sexcapades” with white women dressed in overpriced shoes. For a black-dominated show to even be nominated for an award, it must be top of the line, full of amazing actors and deal with very serious issues of race, like Donald Glover’s show “Atlanta.”
Later on during the show, Brown’s acceptance speech was cut short, giving him no time to even thank his family for his historic win. In contrast, Nicole Kidman rambled on for close to three minutes without being cut off. Another white actress winning an award for acting in a mostly white movie hardly deserves that amount of screen time.
Just a week earlier in a different nationally televised event, we saw another example of white mediocrity being congratulated. Chapman ‘17 alumna Nicole Renard competed in Miss America Sept. 10 as Miss Washington alongside Miss Texas, whose reply to a question about the Charlottesville attacks made the news.
“It was very obvious it was a terrorist attack,” Miss Texas Margana Wood said at the pageant, condemning President Donald Trump’s response (or lack thereof) to the violence.
By merely stating facts and demonstrating basic human decency, Wood was lauded as a hero. Although her answer was great to hear and it shed light on the problems that exist in our political landscape, why should her answer get so much attention? People of color have been speaking out for centuries about the injustices that affect them but are ignored by white America.
A rare example of a white person owning up to her mediocrity is Adele. The singer dedicated her 2017 Grammy win for album of the year to Beyonce, her fellow nominee. Adele got choked up while speaking to her love for Beyonce, saying, “What the (expletive) does she have to do to win?”
Beyonce’s “Lemonade” was one of the most critically acclaimed and influential albums of the year, making Adele’s win for “25” a little shocking. Adele recognized that although her own work is impressive and her album was meaningful, it lacks the cultural significance that “Lemonade” had. Her tear-filled apology to Beyonce was a great example to those who easily reward white people, and it shined a light on the idea that perhaps the album was “too black” for the Grammys.
In fact, Adele actually refused to accept the award, saying, “The ‘Lemonade’ album was just so monumental and well thought-out and beautiful and soul-baring.”
Although many more people of color are receiving awards and opportunities these days, the fact remains that white people are held to lower standards. This doesn’t mean that the work that white people do is inferior – it just means that as a society, we need to stop congratulating mediocre work.
Backstage at the Emmys, Issa Rae, creator and star of HBO series “Insecure,” told a reporter, “I’m rooting for everybody black.”
Me too, Issa, me too.