I say #oscarssoforeign.

First, let me clear something up. I watched the show. I watched it because; number one, I go to the movies; number two, I love the fashion show; and, number three, I celebrated a dear friend’s birthday on that occasion at a viewing party, in her home.

To those of you who watched (you know who you are), did you notice how many persons with foreign accents presented and/or received awards? Donald Trump must have been squirming all night!

Those who are protesting because the Oscars have ignored people of color, specifically black people, just might take up another cause: #oscarsnotamerican.

The whole show was one big irony – to the max; to the mad max (pun intended).

On Sunday night, I was reminded how many of the white actors, some from many other ‘English’-speaking countries, adopt several different American accents, i.e., a slave from the south, early settlers, Bostonians, etc., and that’s called acting!

Then there are the foreign black actors. Did you know that Idris Elba (The Wire, others), Chiwetel Ejiofor (12 Years a Slave); David Oyelowo (The Butler) and John Boyega (Star Wars) are all British? And that’s just the men.

Even the black kid, Abraham Attah, who presented an award, was heavily accented; being from Ghana, you know.

Uzo Aduba (Orange is the New Black heroine) gets a pass. She was born in Massachusetts. We so love her.

But back to the #oscarssoforeign.

It is such an irony that, on the one hand we protest that there were no black nominees, but the host of the show, Chris Rock, delivered an in-your-face black story line comedy routine that was taken all the way to the end when Public Enemy’s Fight the Power played out loud, and in full, over the closing credits.

If you missed that, you missed the end of the joke.

Kudos to Chris Rock. But he had help carrying a weight far greater than his small frame ought to bear. Giving him support with some heavy lifting were Woopie Goldberg, Kevin Hart and Tracey Morgan. Even Stacy Dash got a walk on, but the joke on her fell flat on the audience.

Then, God himself (Morgan Freeman) closed the show with the presentation of the Best Picture. His placement was a very bold, dark exclamation point.

In response to winning the award, the icing on the cake goes to the director of Mad Max, George Miller, who reminded us of how diversity works in a movie. His movie featured a mentally ill antagonist, fought off by an amputee heroine who was devoted to saving sex slaves, replanting trees, and distributing clean water to the residents!

Hooray for Hollywood.

One of the most important lines from Chris Rock’s opening monologue was a reminder that we did not protest #oscarssowhite in those barren days of movies made in the 50s, 60s, and even into the 70s, because we had more pressing problems to protest: gaining our civil rights, avoiding the lynch ropes, etc.

And that brings me back to today’s protest.

#bringbackourgirls #justicefortrayvon #blacklivesmatter #alllivesmatter

Don’t forget to vote!

Toniwg1@gmail.com