'Her Story' Emmy Disappointment

Was hoping along with everyone in the community that my girls Jen Richards and Angelica Ross would be making some more history at the 2016 Creative Arts Emmy Awards Sunday night, but alas, it didn't happen for them.

As y'all may be aware, Her Story was nominated for an Emmy in the Outstanding Short Form Comedy or Drama Series category, but unfortunately  the show Children's Hospital on Adult Swim walked away with the Emmy in that category.

Said Richards on her Facebook page concerning the result:  "Her Story didn't win tonight, but it's hard not to celebrate when it was just a short while ago that Angelica Ross and I were just two unknown transgender women living together in Chicago, who found in each other reasons to dream big."
 
"We have pushed and challenged and cheered each other, have laughed and cried and strutted despaired and hope together every step of this.  And here we are at the Emmys because we had the audacity to believe our stories mattered," she added..

"Thanks to everyone for their unceasing love and support tonight:."  

But the Emmy nomination for Her Story was a win in itself, especially in light of Hollywood's continued annoying pattern of casting cis masculine actors to play trans feminine characters.

I hope that the Emmy nomination of Her Story not only leads to additional seasons of it, but also leads to Hollywood realizing once and for all that trans stories not only matter, but they best done and most authentic when you cast trans actors in trans roles.

IBetter luck next time ladies!  I have a feeling that one day one or both of you will someday be putting an Emmy in your trophy case.

Laverne Cox Gets Historic Emmy Nomination

I'll have another reason to watch the August 25 Primetime Emmy Awards broadcast on NBC besides wondering if Kerry Washington and Joe Morton get the statues to go with their well deserved nominations for their respective Scandal acting roles

I'm still pissed off about Kerry getting screwed last year and y'all know how much I love her. 

But enough about Ms.Washington, this post is about another person I have mad love for in our fave possibility model Laverne Cox, who made more trailblazing history today.

When the nominations for the 2013-2014 Emmy's were announced today, Orange Is The New Black earned 12 Emmy nominations.  One of these nominations was for the Outstanding Guest Actress In A Comedy Series category, and Ms. Cox was nominated for her role as Sophia Burset on the smash hit series.

That nomination makes Laverne the first open transgender actress to be nominated for a primetime Emmy.

She's competing against two of her Orange Is The New Black castmates in Uzo Aduba (Suzanne 'Crazy Eyes' Warren) and Natasha Lyonne (Nicky Nichols) for this Emmy, but I'm hoping that it works out for her.  

Congratulations Laverne!  Well deserved nomination and I'll be tuned in at 7 PM CDT to see if you make more history and actually win it.    
  

The Emmy Blackout Continues

For the first time in several years I actually sat down to watch the Emmy Awards because of Kerry Washington's potential to make history tonight.

No African-American actress has ever won the Emmy in the Outstanding Lead Actress In A Drama Series category, and with her nomination for Scandal, Washington was the first African-American actress to be nominated in this category in the 21st century and the first since 1995.

Debbie Allen (“Fame”; 1982, 1983, 1984, 1985), Alfre Woodard (“St. Elsewhere”; 1986), Regina Taylor (“I’ll Fly Away”; 1992, 1993) and Cicely Tyson (“Sweet Justice”; 1995) were the four previous African-American women nominated in this category who didn't get the win.

So hopes were high that she'd finally end that drought but alas the blackout continues. 

She didn't win the Emmy tonight, Claire Danes won her third.   Don Cheadle and Alfre Woodard didn't win in their categories either.

And they wonder why African-Americans don't tune into the Emmys and Oscars and we have our own awards shows.  It's because we're tired of watching our people bust their ass, do the work to get nominated and get screwed.

That's okay Kerry, we love you and know you should have been standing up there making history tonight.
   
Another season of Scandal starts October 3, so let's hope the Academy rectifies their error, nominates her again in 2014 and this time she wins it.

Womanist Musings-An All White Emmys

If you wonder why Latino and African-Americans have their own awards shows to honor their people, it's because far too often the big awards shows become boringly drawn out celebrations of whiteness.

Renee of Womanist Musings touched upon that in her critique of Sunday's Emmy Awards in which once again, POC's were nominated (and very few of them) but went home empty handed.

Okay, now it's time for me to give you a taste of what she had to say about the just concluded Emmy's

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It would have been bad enough if the erasure of actors of colour were simply this year's Emmys, but the truth of the matter is that these award shows have a long history of this exclusionary behaviour. There are still categories which no Black actor has ever won (this in supposedly post racial America).

If Esposito had won Best Supporting Actor in a Drama for "Breaking Bad," or if Rudolph had won the Comedy Guest Actress Award for "Saturday Night Live," they would have become the first black performers to win in their respective categories ever. Cheadle would have become only the second African-American in history to win Best Lead Actor in a Comedy for "House of Lies." Elba was nominated for Lead Actor in a Movie/Mini for "Luther" and Devine for Guest Actress in a Drama for "Grey's Anatomy." The news isn't as shocking considering only 5 percent of black actors have won awards in the 63 years of the Emmys. [source]

When this sort of issue is brought up, it is often suggested that we focus on our own awards, but this is not a solution.  Award shows like the Emmys and the Oscars portend to represent the entire industry but that is certainly not what they are doing.  What we need to advance is mainstream inclusion, not special side projects; separate is not equal, as we have seen over the decades. Year after year, what is presented as inclusion, is nothing more than yet another extravagant display of White hegemony.What we have been offered are crumbs from the masters table and this will never be acceptable.  Even with the population demographics shifting, Whiteness still refuses to loosen its hold on power. If they are not going to award the work of actors of colour, they might as well rename the show to the White Emmy awards because the exclusion is obvious to anyone watching.

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You can read the rest of Renee's article by clicking on the link.