Over the weekend, the NAACP Awards celebrated it’s 50th year and per usual, people of color were recognized, from Maxine Walters and many more. Artists an Actors were awarded such as:
Chadwick Boseman for winning Outstanding Actor in a Film for “Black Panther”
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Taraji P Henson for Outstanding Actress in a Drama Series for the show Empire
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Anthony Anderson Outstanding Actor in a Comedy Series for the ABC Show Blackish
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Tracee Ellis Ross Outstanding Actress in a Comedy Series for the ABC Show Blackish
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Jay-Z received the President Award and Beyonce received the Entertainer of the Year Award.
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I think it is important for black award shows like this to be in a category of their own peers. I understand that being in a category with other peers of difference genres of music and different movie categories, that it is more important to win because you beat out a wider range of nominees, but “competing” against your own peers and being positively recognized for it is definitely a plus. I think that us as an audience and others as a creative should be more thankful and appreciative of these kind of awards.
Tracee Ellis Ross is not only spunky and adorable but she’s talented as well. Her mom is freakin Diana Ross so clearly she comes from a talent-inclined background.
Her first major role was Joan Clayton in the hit show Girlfriend. Her role as a successful lawyer was something to look up to, especially since her friends were equally successful; even if one was working for her and the other was finding herself, and the successful real estate agent was self- centered AF! The show lasted from 2000-2009.
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Her role as Joan showed the world that a woman can be successful, date and their best life. Also, she rarely wore bras and she was a Corporate America type chick.
Tracee’s more recent role is Rainbow Johnson, a doctor, wife, and mother of 5 kids on the show Blackish. She makes it very clear that she’s a doctor and not a stay at home while since her husband Dre, played by Anthony Johnson, is a successful Senior Marketing Executive at a Marketing Firm.
Bow has spoken up about black dolls in a store not being idolized as successful women such as pilots, mathematicians and even doctors like herself. She believes in equality, even if that means her daughter playing a the lead role of a boy in a play and even if that means speaking out against her daughter being poorly lighted in a school photo because she is dark skinned. In her role, she’s comedic, so comedic that in 2017 she won a Golden Globe for Best Actress in a TV series–Comedy. Tracee has also been nominated for an Oscar three times three years in a row.
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I think it’s safe to say she’s DOPE AF and sets the standard.
When did you first lay eyes on Tracee Ellis Ross? Comment below and let me know!
The TV show Blackish does not shy away from controversial and trending topics, for example Juneteenth, calling the police on black people, black people not knowing how to swim and recently, on last night’s episode they addressed colorism.
If you haven’t had the chance to watch it, here’s what happened: Diane, played by Marsai Martin, took her class picture and she was poorly lighted in the pictured and it made her look darker skinned.
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Now, for the record, she is the only dark skinned family member in the show. Bow, played by Tracee Ellis Ross, is her mother and light skinned; Dre, played by Anthony Anderson is more caramel skinned and plays her dad; Grandma (Ruby), played by Jenifer Lewis, is caramel skinned; Grandpa (Pops), played by Laurence Fishburne, is caramel skinned; Junior, played by Marcus Scribner, is her older brother and light skinned; Zoey, played by Yara Shahidi, is her older sister and is caramel skinned; and Jack, played by Miles Brown, is her twin brother and is caramel skinned as well.
Bow and Dre made a big deal about it because they felt that Diane was under looked and lighted poorly and they wanted her group school picture retaken. Diana did think it was a big deal but she was really hiding her true feelings. Junior brought up the fact that the light skinned people in the family are treated differently than the light skin people. For instance, he brought up the fact that Dre is always hard on him and he symbolizes his complexion to being soft, like the jokes going around about Drake being emotional and soft because she sings RnB (as well as rap) and because he’s light skin. Junior also brought up the fact that Jack does weird “sensitive” acts but he gets a pass because he’s not light skinned and “that’s just Jack.” Ruby is always clowning on Bow because she’s mixed/light skin and thinks that she can’t raise her kids right, insulting right? Another point that Junior brought up was that light skinned people get joked on more instead of dark skinned people, specifically in their household; he said what if him and Bow started telling dark skinned joke, and Dre’s response was “Don’t you dare.” Which he has a point. If someone was to joke about my skin tone during the time I was struggling with it, I woulda snapped or got really emotional because there has been a standard, in a sense, that light skin is the preferred skin tone and the only beautiful skin. You had your dark skin artists such as Lauryn Hill that was one of the very few people loved no matter the tone of her skin.
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Diane ended up revealing that it actually does bother her that she has to get reminded on the daily of her skin, from band aids being a nude color according to lighter skins and not matching her skin, to trying on lipstick and a BLACK sales assocoiate says that color wouldn’t like good on “our skin tone” and suggests her try on a more toned down color, to a random lady saying she was cute for a “dark skinned girl.” WTF IS UP WITH THAT?
Whether we want to believe it or not, we STILL live in a world that’s full of color stroke people and colorism issues, meaning people past judgment on skin tones. Light skin people are supposedly not as threatening as dark skin people. Light skin men are supposedly softer than dark skin men. Light women are supposedly curve men more and will do you dirty, versus dark skin women are more laid back and outgoing, all SUPPOSEDLY!
One thing I’ve noticed and it’s been spoken about, is that black men love/fantasize about about having a foreign light skinned woman. Public figures have spoken about it saying “i need her to be light skinned, long hair that’s real” etc. What I don’t like is that the media and people in general act like the only kind of beautiful is light skin women, BUT I will say that the media, social and all, has made it their duty to glorify dark skin women such as Lupita Nyong’O, Viola Davis, Danai Gurira, Aja Naomi King, Yvonne Orji, and many more.
I use to deal with skin tone issues when I was younger. The guys I liked in elementary and middle school always liked light skin girls. Then when I got in high school, the guys who did seek interest in me only wanted to talk to me because of my big booty.
The point in all this is: ALL BLACK IS BEAUTIFUL. Yes we hear that a lot but seriously…ALL BLACK IS BEAUTIFUL. Light skin women have been picked on because they are too cute; according to Amber Rose, that happened to her. Dark skin women have been picked on for being to too dark and ugly, as sad as it is. I think we should all learn to stop judging someone by the tone of their skin, EVEN BLACK FOLKS AGAINST BLACK FOLKS. We’ve all been guilty of it, I know I have.
WOW! This year’s BET Awards was one of the best that the network has had in a while. From bringing out Bad Boy to doing the Smokey Robinson tribute AND a tribute to Janet Jackson.
Kendrick Lamar opened up the stage with the American flag waving while he performed on a graffiti filled police car. His performance related to what’s actually going on in the real world with police brutality and the confederate flag issue. K-Dot, his new nickname, set the stage on fire performing his new single “Alright.” The hosts of the show Anthony Anderson and Tracee Ellis Ross made their appearance in leotards, singing “Conqueror” by Estelle and Jussie Smollet, while Ms. Tracee was swinging from a harness. Entertaining to say the least.
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Actresses Laverne Cox and Gabrielle Union presented the first awards wearing the same chic white dress. They announced that Terence Howard won the best actor award for his work in the FOX show “Empire”, so you know my girl Taraji P Henson had to win the Best Actress Award. Janelle Monae tore the stage up switching her style to sexy and seductive, singing her new song “Yoga” then new artist Jidenna came out singing “Classic Man”, and his attire matched his song title.
OF COURSE Nicki Minaj took the award for Best Female Hip Hop artist,who else would EVEN come close to winning that award in that category…NO ONE! K-Dot took the award for Best Hip Hop artist in a tough category with J.Cole, Drake, Common, Big Sean and Wale. The lovely Sam Smith won the award for Best New Artist, but he was not there to accept….because he is white and he didn’t think he would win LOL, says the comedian Anthony Anderson who accepted the award on his behalf. CB (Chris Brown) took home the award for Best Male R&B/Pop Artist AND The Fandemonium Award, as well as the Viewer’s Choice Award for the song “Only” alongside with Nicki Minaj, Drake and Wayne. Ms. Bey won the award for Best Female R&B/Pop Artist and Video of the year for her video “7/11″ and she was in those categories with some great artists……..who were actually at the awards. How many years has it been since she was at the awards??? ANYWHO, the group Rae Sremmurd won the Best Group Award for their songs ” No Flex Zone” and “Throw Some Mo”. The Best Collaboration category, was a competitive one with Chris Brown featuring Tyga and Lil Wayne, Big Sean & E-40, August Alsina (BAE) & Nicki Minaj, Chris Brown AGAIN featuring Usher & Rick Ross, Common & John Legend, and lastly Mark Ronso & Bruno Mars but the song “Glory” by Common & John Legend took home the win, which was on the Selma soundtrack. The film won the Best Movie Award as well.
OMG, the performances though…AMAZING!!! As I said before Kendrick hit the stage, then of course BET has their Music Matters singers that they showcase; Andra Day and Avery Wilson “sang” their hearts out. The Weeknd performed his new single “The Hills” and “Earned It” with Alicia Keys helping him on the piano. One of the BEST performances of the night was the Bad Boy Reunion. Diddy came out rapping “Can’t Nobody Hold Me Down” then of course he had to bring MA$E out to help him sing the anthem “Bad Boy.” THEN 112 came out singing “Peaches & Cream” THROWBIKE *Plies Voice*. The stunning Faith Evan sang “Love Like This.” Jadakiss came out with the crew to rap “All About Benjamins”…thennnnn Diddy fell, but he bounced back real quick, then Lil Kim popped up…literally to spit her verse. The song then shifted to the crew rapping “Mo Money Mo problems” and ending the song with Biggie’s verse. The reunion performance ended with Pharrell and Diddy singing “Fenna Get Loose” and with back up dancers killing a soul train line.
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The other BEST performance of the night, was the Smokey Robinson Tribute. Tori Kelly sang the Jackson 5 hit “Who’s Loving You.” When I say that girl killed that performance, she did just that! She’s got some people asking “Who is this gorgeous white girl with the lovely voice?” Well Tori Kelly started making YouTube videos of her singing covers of songs at age 14. She is a former American Idol contestant of Season 9 but unfortunately didn’t make it to the top 24 contestants; but that didn’t stop her. She started working independently writing and producing her own music, until she got noticed by Capitol Records, and got signed to them last year. More recently, she debuted her first album “Unbreakable Smile” this past June. Robin Thicke also performed in the tribute singing the 1965 classic “Ooo Baby Baby”. Ne-Yo hit the stage singing “The Tears of a Clown.” Then Mr. Smokey himself had to shut it down singing “The Tracks of My Tears” and “Cruisin.” Then all four artist ended the tribute singing “My Girl.” He also accepted the Lifetime Achievement Award.
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The last great performance was the Janet Jackson tribute. Singers Tinashe, Ciara and Jason Derulo paid homage to the Ultimate Icon. The humble Janet Jackson accepted her award being so soft spoken and grateful for her award.
Other great performances of the night was Big Sean rapping “IDFWU”, “Blessed” and ” One Man Can Change the world”, then Meek Mills, Chris Brown and Nicki Minaj their new hit “All Eyes on You.” Of course it was adorable since Meek and Nicki are dating.
Tom Joyner took home the award Humanitarian of the Year for donating over $65 Million to HBCUs. Lastly Fetty Wap closed out the Awards singing the well-known hit “Trap Queen.” BET did their thang with this year’s award show. I’m definitely looking forward to next year.
Danii Gold 