Black News Tonight’s (BNT) Marc Lamont Hill spoke some necessary truths on a recent episode of his hit show regarding the Emmy Awards lack of Black winners.
On Monday night, Hill gave a poignant monologue about Black people’s constant begging to be celebrated and honored by the white entertainment industry.
The exasperated 42-year-old scholar and activist posted the fiery schpiel on his personal Instagram account.
He captioned the video, “Emmys So White? On Black News Tonight, I offered my thoughts on the lack of Black winners at last night’s Emmy Awards. Some of y’all might not like my answer. Thoughts?”
Then, Hill went in.
“Listen, y’all. I understand why you’re mad that Black folk are not getting Emmys. We made up 44%, Black and brown people, of the nominations and didn’t get any of the major awards,” he began. “But look– it’s two thousand and twenty-one, we have to stop expecting something different.”
Hill continued, “We have to stop expecting our open enemies to feed us, to clothe us, to shelter us. We have to stop expecting people who have colonized us to educate us, and we have to stop expecting people who have made a history of exploiting our culture, of mocking our bodies– our lips, our hips, our noses and then going to get surgery to look like us.”
Bars.
Hill also explained how historically, white people have stolen and appropriated Black culture and traditions for centuries.
“To make fun of our music and then call it “devil music” and then make billions and trillions of dollars of it… whether it was jazz, blues, rock or hip hop. They don’t love you! So stop looking to their award shows for affirmations. Stop looking for their awards to verify who we are. Accept your own and be yourself. That means leave them alone.”
Finally, the Philly native delivered the perfect summation of the whiteout at the Emmy Awards.
“Are the Emmys wrong? Yeah. Are the Emmys racist? Absolutely. But you can’t continue to be disappointed because disappointment reflects an expectation. And at this point, after 400+ years– you gotta stop expecting stuff from them.”
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Boom.
The video garnered almost 110,000 views and counting.
Hill’s followers seemingly agreed with the commentary because it spoke to a repetitive action every time white folks don’t include us.
In 2016, writer Zack Linly shared a similar sentiment in the Washington Post regarding the police killing innocent Black people.
“We need to stop acting like white people don’t take the same reading comprehension portions of standardized tests all through middle and high school that we do. They know how analogies work. They got it the first time — they just didn’t care,” Linly wrote.
When all they render are empty gestures and hashtags, it’s about time we stop spinning our wheels with redundant critiques and observations of white folks being white.
Take back our power. Practice the same exclusivity they do. Our shit’s better anyway.
