Oscars Only Reward Blacks Playing “Subservient” Roles - David Oyelowo

British actor of Nigerian descent,David Oyelowo snubbed by the Oscars for his praised performance as Martin Luther King, Jr. in Selma, has called out the larger problem of black actors and actresses being ignored when they aren’t in “subservient” roles. 

The star made his comments at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival.

“Generally speaking, we as black people have been celebrated more for when we are subservient,when we are not being leaders or kings or being at the center of our own narrative, driving it forward,” explained Oyelowo. “To me, Denzel Washington should have won for playing Malcolm X.” 

“We’ve just got to come to the point whereby there isn’t a self-fulfilling prophecy, a notion of who black people are, that feeds into what we are celebrated as, not just in the Academy, but in life generally. We have been slaves, we have been domestic servants, we have been criminals, we have been all of those things. But we’ve been leaders, we’ve been kings, we’ve been those who changed the world.”