Nigerian-American Hollywood actor David Oyelowo recently took to his Instagram to share some of his terrible experiences of racial discrimination as an African living in America.
According to him, members of the Oscars Academy called the producers to say they were not going to vote for the movie “Selma” because the cast dared to wear shirts that said “I can’t breathe” to protest the death of Eric Garner.
He said: “I remember at the premiere of Selma us wearing ‘I Can’t Breathe’ T-shirts in protest. Members of the Academy called into the studio and our producers saying, ‘How dare they do that? Why are they stirring S-H-I-T?’ and ‘We are not going to vote for that film because we do not think it is their place to be doing that’.
“Selma”, a 2014 movie was based on the 1965 Selma to Montgomery voting rights marches. It was a huge cinematic success and earned two Oscar nominations; for best picture and best original song. David Oyelowo played the lead role of Martin Luther King Jnr.
Sharing the emotional video, David Oyelowo wrote:
“Let’s create a better future together. This video is 8 mins and 2 secs long. Derek Chauvin had his knee on George Floyd’s neck for another 44 seconds longer than that. Think about that”
David Oyelowo recently took to his Instagram to share some of his terrible experiences of racial discrimination as an African living in America.Racism is heavily entrenched into the culture of the world so much that people, especially black people are judge solely by the colour of their skin and also, discriminated against.
Recently, following the death of George Floyd, a worldwide protest against racism and racial killings was sparked off. Also, several celebrities including John Boyega, Keke Palmer, Ariana Grande, J Cole, Nick Cannon, and others joined in the protest to take down institutionalised racism.
David Oyelowo in his video shared how his father was faced with racism in the 60s and how his brother, a practicing health officer was told to go back to Africa. He also shared his experiences of blatant racial discrimination in Hollywood.
According to him, members of the Oscars Academy called the producers to say they were not going to vote for the movie “Selma” because the cast dared to wear shirts that said “I can’t breathe” to protest the death of Eric Garner.
He said: “I remember at the premiere of Selma us wearing ‘I Can’t Breathe’ T-shirts in protest. Members of the Academy called into the studio and our producers saying, ‘How dare they do that? Why are they stirring S-H-I-T?’ and ‘We are not going to vote for that film because we do not think it is their place to be doing that’.
“Selma”, a 2014 movie was based on the 1965 Selma to Montgomery voting rights marches. It was a huge cinematic success and earned two Oscar nominations; for best picture and best original song. David Oyelowo played the lead role of Martin Luther King Jnr.
Sharing the emotional video, David Oyelowo wrote:
“Let’s create a better future together. This video is 8 mins and 2 secs long. Derek Chauvin had his knee on George Floyd’s neck for another 44 seconds longer than that. Think about that”
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