Celebrities using award shows and other public appearances as political platforms is certainly nothing new. So, when Meryl Streep gave her acceptance speech upon accepting the Cecil B. DeMille Award at the 2017 Golden Globe Awards, it was pretty much a given that she would use at least part of her allotted time on live television to address current political issues. Today: Specifically, Donald Trump’s upcoming presidential inauguration.
I respect Streep’s choice to express her political views and recognize the validity of the concerns she intended to express.
What bothers me – as someone with liberal values, a liberal mindset, and a desire/hope to see equal treatment for human beings of all races, religions, sexual orientations, races, beliefs, sexualities, abilities, disabilities, etc. – is the lazy reliance on black and white thinking you have shown, as well as the hypocrisy that relies on… He has to think all or nothing in order to maintain blind adherence to messages.
Unlike the Best Actress award, Cecil B. DeMille’s award was not a surprise.
Mrs. Streep had had plenty of time to prepare the speech which she knew to be true. During that time, she could check, edit, and/or modify her words as necessary. She even started to acknowledge the fact that she was going to read her speech. It’s all good.
Except that her speech was full of hypocrisy, biased examples, sensationalist insinuations and faulty reasoning – all of which were completely unnecessary to make the points she seemed to want to make.
But it caught people’s attention, didn’t it?
I have watched her speech carefully several times now and read the full text. I even watched it while reading the script once to make sure I didn’t miss anything.
Here are seven statements that I find deeply troubling in light of what they reveal about current tensions within American society.
- “All of us in this room truly belong to the most vilified segments of American society right now. Think about it: Hollywood, foreigners, and the press.”
Hollywood, foreigners and the press. Are these the most vilified segments of American society at the present time? truly?
What about black men? And black women?
What about the LGBTQ community? (They get jobs outside of entertainment. Just FYI.)
What about the mentally disabled and the homeless?
I’m sure there are more labels to pull from the defamation hat before Hollywood and the press, if not foreigners, so please save the victim label. We all deserve compassion and protection based on the fact that we are our fellow human beings. No need to compete for the title of most hated for that to be said.
- “Amy Adams was born in Vicenza, Veneto, Italy, and Natalie Portman was born in Jerusalem. Where are their birth certificates?”
Last I heard, none of the actors Streep mentioned are currently running for elected office, so the implication of the controversy over President Obama’s birth certificate — no matter how ridiculous or biased — is completely unwarranted and baseless. .
I assume that the past, present and future employers of each of these actors have taken care to obtain any proof of citizenship or work visa required by well-paid, highly trained legal departments. Whether this assumption is correct or not does not affect American public opinion, because we do not employ these representatives the way we employ our elected officials.
Apples, please meet oranges. You should get to know each other.
- “Amy Adams was born in Vicenza, Veneto, Italy, and Natalie Portman was born in Jerusalem.”
Yes, I realize this is a partial repetition of quote number two, precisely because that sentence has been troubling me so much, especially in light of quote number one.
When listing multiple actors by their state or country of origin, Streep repeatedly mentioned not only the region each of her foreign-born castmates were from, but the country as well.
Amy Adams, Vincenza, Veneto, Italy
Ruth Negga, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
Ryan Gosling, Canada
Dave Patel, Kenya
Natalie Portman, Jerusalem?
Last time I checked, Jerusalem was not a sovereign state. It is a city within the State of Israel. The future of this situation may be hotly debated, but it is, at least for now, part of Israel itself. Streep seems to have conveniently forgotten that.
A bit like how last week most major media outlets forgot to mention that four people were killed and 17 injured in Jerusalem when someone driving a huge truck plowed into a crowd of pedestrians at a popular outdoor park and tourist site.
You know, a bit like what happened recently in Nice and Berlin.
Has anyone seen the option to make a temporary photo for their Facebook profile in support of Jerusalem? Because it looks like my app is not eligible for this specific update.
So anyway, yes, let’s make sure we advocate for foreigners and applaud the diversity among our fellow actors’ countries of origin… as long as we don’t explicitly reference Jews in the room.
- “Hollywood is full of outsiders and foreigners, and if we kicked them all out, you’d have nothing to watch but football and mixed martial arts, and they’re not arts.”
amazing. This statement was completely unnecessary, fundamentally incorrect, and strikingly judgmental.
