The Academy Awards: The Class Edition

There has been much discussion about the displays of sexism and racism at Sunday’s 85^th Academy Awards ceremony broadcast.  Much of the criticisms have taken aim at host Seth MacFarlane and the Twitter feed of the satirical newspaper, The Onion. Whatever problems the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has with gender and race that spilled into last night’s telecast, it seems they are less about either gender or race.  Rather, any poorly dim views of race and gender likely are based more in class than in anything else. 

To some extent, the Oscar ceremony is a display of some of the most privileged among us using their wealth and power to throw a lavish, self-congratulatory spectacle for themselves.  The rest of us are asked to witness this display and are expected to share in the revelry of the rich and famous wallowing in their own successes.  In such an environment, is it any wonder that the privileged class holds some of us – like minorities and women - in such contempt?

A look at some of last night’s winners beyond their performances demonstrates how well heeled they are.  Celebritynetworth.com reports that Best Actor winner Daniel Day-Lewis was worth up to $40 million dollars as recently as October 2010.  At about that same time, Best Supporting Actor winner Christoph Waltz was worth $10 million.  As of July 2010, Best Supporting Actress winner Anne Hathaway was worth up to $15 million.  Best Actress winner Jennifer Lawrence was worth only $2 million as of July 2011.  She earned a mere $500,000 for her role in The Hunger Games, but reportedly will earn $10 million for the next installment of that movie franchise.  Her win last night likely will enable her to demand even more money for any future projects.  And the producers of Best Picture winner Argo?  Ben Affleck was worth as much as $65 million as recently as January 2010.  His co-producer, George Clooney, had a staggering reported net worth of $160 million as recently as January 2011.

Most of us can only imagine the power and privilege that comes with this kind of wealth.  At best, it leads to the kind of self-indulgence demonstrated during the annual awards season.  At worst, it enables an ever-widening gap between filmmakers, actors, and other artists and entertainers and their audiences; who, after all, pay their salaries.

Authentic Latinos: Oscars Edition

This has been a less than inspiring year for Hispanics in film and their presence at the Academy Awards, or lack thereof, is indicative of that. Voxxi has given a rundown of Latinos who were up for awards. The list it mustered includes those in some of the less high profile categories, like cinematography and short documentary (not to undercut the two winners of the short and feature length documentary awards, “Inocente” and “Searching for Sugarman,” respectively).  In order to fill out the lack of a Hispanic presence, the article reaches to the foreign film category, namely the Chilean film “No,” starring Mexican actor Gael García Bernal; this although most would agree that Latin Americans living in their home countries are not Latino at all as Hispanic and Latino are categories that only have meaning in the United States. The Academy could not even muster a brief acknowledgment for Lupe Ontiveros, the Latina character actress, who passed away this year.

The one possibility for a Latino presence in a major award category was the acclaimed film Argo, which is based on the life of former CIA agent Antonio “Tony” Mendez. Rather than having a Latino actor play the Mexican-descent Mendez, Ben Affleck chose to cast himself in the lead role. This was to the chagrin of journalist and polemicist Ruben Navarrette, who argued a few weeks ago that Affleck rewarded himself at the expense of many qualified Latino actors. Navarrette offered a compelling opinion that it is time for Hollywood to place Latinos in lead roles, especially when the characters are Latinos.

There was an interesting twist to Navarrette’s appeal, however; Jack Rico, a writer with NBC Latino, sat down with the real Tony Mendez to see if he had taken umbrage with Affleck, an Irish-American, playing him in the film. Mendez said he had no problem at all with Affleck portraying him. It wasn’t because Affleck speaks Spanish and could pass as an authentic Latino, it was because Mendez doesn’t identify as Hispanic. As he stated in the interview, “I think of myself as a person who grew up in the desert. If I had been in a different family circumstance, I might have felt that way.” He reveals again that lumping a really diverse group of people into one category is a difficult thing to do, and given the artifice that is involved, many people may just opt out. Many “Hispanics” and “Latinos” do just that, as they typically prefer to be categorized by their countries of origin. Mendez takes it a step further, as probably a significant number of Hispanics have done, by simply melting into the American pot and giving up the minority ethnic identity. Richard Alba, a sociologist has argued this very point and has numbers to back up the idea that Latinos are assimilating into the mainstream, just as generations of immigrant descendants have before.

Even though there was not large Latino presence in terms of films and actors this year, perhaps Hispanics can take solace in the fact that in one way they have always been present at the award ceremony and always will be. After all, the Oscar statue was modeled after Emilio Fernández, a Mexican-born screenwriter, actor, and director who worked on both American and Mexican films.