The Oscars are the highest awards in the world of cinema, or the world says so. But still hangs on the ropes of color, class and superiority. The question arises as to whether this new world is being transformed into something that is still biased, received or given to only one group.
There are obvious reasons why such a question arises. We have to wonder if we should see the distribution of Oscar awards as the crowning examples of colorism and racism that still exist in developed countries known as civilized societies.
Halle Berry was the first black actress to win an Oscar award for best actress/ The only black woman who won this title too.
Now if you think about why such a discussion, it was in 2002 that the world’s first African-American or black woman won the Oscar for Best Actress. It belongs to none other than the famous Hollywood star Halle Maria Berry. Halla Berry was born in 1966 to Judith Ann, a white immigrant from Liverpool, and Jerome Jesse Berry, an African American. The saddest truth is that Halla is still the first black woman and the only woman of color to win an Oscar for Best Actress in the world. It has been almost twenty years since she received this award, but the big truth that shames us is that no other black woman in the world has won such an award, i.e. another Oscar award for best actress. Is the question whether there are no black women capable of winning this award or not? Or does it have some other purpose? It is a matter for everyone to think about.
Halla Berry played a struggling widow in the 2001 film Monster’s Ball directed by Marc Forster. This kind of neglect has happened before in Hollywood’s history. Hattie McDaniel was the first black woman to win an Oscar in 1940. It was the Best Supporting Actress award. But it’s a pity that the Oscar-winning actor didn’t get many film opportunities later in her career. The hotel authorities did not allow the black woman who won the Oscar to sit with the white actors of the same film at the night club party organized for the awardees that day. Hattie McDaniel got the academy award for her role in the 1939 movie ‘Gone With the Wind’. she played the role of a slave Mammy. She got the Oscars for the best-supporting actress on February 29, 1940.
The first Black woman who won the Oscar Award (Best Supporting Actress)
Although Hattie McDaniel’s Oscar win was supposed to open up opportunities for other black actors, she has said in many interviews that even Hattie McDaniel didn’t get the opportunities she deserved. Similarly, what she said about what she felt at that time was very thought-provoking. The actor said that “rather than getting such a big honor like Oscar, he had the impression that he had done something big wrong.”
Perhaps because of this neglect, a campaign started in 2015 called #OscarsSoWhite. Halla Berry became very emotional in an earlier interview, saying that in the 20 years since she won the award, no other black woman has received the award. “It’s heartbreaking that there is no other black woman to stand with me on this award,” she says.
The actor shared her personal experiences. On the night of the award, I was thinking with great anticipation because big changes are about to happen. A lot of black women get opportunities, I can play the roles I want, and soon a big truck full of scripts will be at my front door, but the fact is, nothing like that happened, says Halla Berry. Like many other Oscar winners before her, she thought that the changes in her life would happen, but the fact is, nothing happened. Halla Berry says. Is it only because of her color?
