The Harland Highway - 643 - African Americans snubbed at the Oscars. HArland plays guitar, NOT!

Episode Date: January 26, 2015

Harland talks to a proffessor from Berkley about the lack of African Americans being represented at this years Oscars. Harland tried to play guitar. Press my mess!! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hey, hi, hi. Hey, everybody. It's Harlem Williams here at the Harland Highway podcast. Thank you for joining in today. Interesting show today. We're going to be taking a phone call from one of the pavement pounders asking me about my guitar playing abilities. Wow. I never did learn the guitar.

I never really picked it up, but I tried. And kind of an interesting story about. my attempt at learning to play a guitar. I actually bought a guitar, and when you listen to the show, you'll hear where I got it, and the hijinks it led to, but I never really learned to play it.

So that's going on today. Also, very topical story, a controversial story. A lot of hoopla being raised about the African-American community being snubbed. And this year is Oscar race. And there's a lot of people crying foul, and there's a lot of people scratching their heads, wondering why. And we actually have a professor from Berkeley, California, from Berkeley, the university, the college,

and he is a professor of African-American social services. Professor Rutherford Grimes will be here to help us figure it all out. today on the Harland Highway. You're listening to Harlan Williams. Harlan, funny stuff, bro. Funny stuff. Keep it coming. Later.

How long have you had this job? Long enough. He's fine as long as he gets his medication. He doesn't get his medications. He's not fine. You just made a wrong turn. On to the Harland Highway. You're a groovy boy.

I'd like to strap you on sometime. The Harland Highway You're all going to experience intense mental, physical strength All right, hold tight on the Harland Highway show Don't that be doing

I'll do what I swear to God Don't be such a fucking pussy You're new around here ain't you What's your name? You're listening to Harlan Williams Welcome to the Harland Highway Hello Hello, everybody. How are you today? I hope you're doing good. I know I'm doing good.

What are we getting into today? I believe that we're going to be talking about some pretty controversial issue today. Apparently the Oscars are coming up and the Oscar nominations have been released. and as it turns out, no black or African-American actors were nominated this year despite some great work from African-American actors. I didn't see the movie Selmo, which was about the, you know, chronicled portions of Martin Luther King Jr.'s life. But apparently no one was nominated from that movie. and I guess there were some other movies

where the African-American presence at the Oscars was quite low this year compared to last year. Now personally, I'm a guy that goes, this is movies, this is art, and you can't force or tell people what to like or what not to like,

whether it's an actor or a movie or anything. And if one year there are movies where there's 30 movies and there's African-American actors or Latino or Chinese, whatever, and people love the movie, and they love the work, they vote for it. If they don't really love it, they don't vote for it. But you can't put racial labels on movies like that because it's not fair. It's suddenly everyone's going to be paranoid about making movies,

and suddenly you're not going to be making movies or hiring actors for the right reasons. Now, there's some years where, like last year, a big African-American presence, great. There were great movies, great performances, people deserved it, the work deserved it, and other years they're not. We should be basing all this stuff on the work and the movies

and not what the balance is. Because, you know, that just doesn't seem fair to me. Nobody's trying to purposely exclude African-Americans. But, you know, if an African-American actor gives a crappy performance and a white or Latino or Chinese person does a great performance, you've got to go with the great performance. And if it's the other way around, the black performance is the best one. You go for the black one.

To me, that's just simple. And I get a little worried when people start like, like, whipping up this frenzy about oh well it's out of balance and it's this and it's that well when it comes to art and people's taste you got to let them pick and and as far as I know the Oscar thing is a voting process where people uh in the academy view all the movies and view the material and and vote based on what they like the most I doubt that people sit there and go, well, I really like that movie because there was an African-American in and I'm not going to vote for it.

If they do do that, they should be kicked out of the academy. But, you know, I have to believe, I want to believe that people vote on stuff based on what it is. But it is controversial. And I guess Roger is telling me we have a gentleman on the line who wants to discuss the topic, who's very knowledgeable in the topic. It is a professor from Berkeley. It's Professor Rutherford Grimes, who is a specialist in African American history and social studies.

He's a professor of African American social studies up at Berkeley. And let's get them on the line. and let him weigh in on this debate. Professor Rutherford, are you there, sir? Professor Grimes, are you there, sir? Yes, I'm here. Thank you very much. Thank you, sir.

Great to have you here for this talk. Just so everyone's aware, you are African-American male. You are Rutherford Grimes, professor of African-American social studies up at Berkeley. Absolutely, and we're doing some wonderful work up here. We've been up here for almost two decades, Mr. Williams, doing studies, you know, as my title suggests, in the African-American community, African-American population at large. an important work it is sir thank you very much but let's get to

this debate that I've been talking about and we're talking about the exclusion of African Americans at this year's Oscars and what is your take on it Professor Rutherford Grimes well thank you very much and I think it's unfortunate

I think there is a general fear in the white community of black African-American actors and directors of prominence producers and perhaps even at the highest level CEOs at motion picture companies. Okay, well, that's all valid, but I'm not sure I go along with the notion that white people are afraid of African-Americans. the entertainment industry, sir. That seems a little bold and a little harsh. Well, Mr. Williams, we've done a lot of research on this, and we can point to with direct examples. We can point to direct logarithms of when African Americans show up prominently

during these ceremonies and when, you know, African Americans have basically had to sit it out, if you know what I mean. So sit it out and be an excellent. excluded shut out of the party, if you know what I'm saying. Well, okay, if you can cite an example of, you know, I don't know how you gauge when the white community is frightened off by the black community. That seems a bit outdated to me. Well, do you know this actor, African-American actor, a wonderful actor named Forst Whitaker? Yes, of course, Forrest Whitaker.

won an Oscar, I believe, and been nominated. Very, very great work out of him. He's been in many, many movies. Absolutely. And I'm not sure, but are you familiar with Forrest Whitaker's left eye? What do you mean? Well, he got two eyes. He got one on the right and one on the left.

Well, I know he's got two eyes. But that left eye, have you ever seen Wolf Whitaker's left eye? Well, yes. If I've seen his movies, I would have had to by default. And that left eye, sometimes that left eye just opened wide and nice, and it's almost like an owl, look like an owl eye, just beautiful and nice and full of life. And then other times you see movies where Fort Whitaker, his eye looked all beat down, it looked like somebody smashed him all up with an axe handle or something like that.

Whoa, whoa, whoa, wait a minute, Professor. Yeah, that eye look all smashed up, like maybe he got allergy to maybe he got a peanut allergy, and I don't know if he got something in his eye. He'd been rubbing it all night long, maybe for 15, 20 days. It's all weepy and pussy, and it's clothed up, and you can barely see his eyeball in that puffed-up eye. Okay, well, maybe that's just a physical ailment.

Well, our research, Mr. Williams, so different, and there's a correlation based on our research that when Forst Whitaker's left eye, You hear me now, and Ford Littaker, but Whitaker left eye all nice and round and plump and looking healthy, there seemed to be a lot of African-American involved in the Oscar ceremonies. Okay. But if his eye all beat up and it looked like maybe someone took a canoe paddle to the side of his face, or maybe he was walking through the woods and a branch go in his eye,

and his eyes all closed up and sealed like an Egyptian tomb, uh we find that the white people get scared and and veer away from the african-americans in the entertainment industry the actors the directors and so on and right up with the pecking chain wait a minute wait now now now hold on uh professor rutherford grimes this is a little outrageous a little insulting not only you know to white people but Probably to Forrest Whitaker. I mean, you're basing, you're basing the clarity, the condition of his left eye sets the tone for how whites react to blacks at the Oscars.

100%, Mr. Williams. And it's like a, if you want to think of it in terms of a logarithm, okay, it's almost like a thermometer game. You know, when it gets hot, the thermometer go up, and when it get cold, the thermometer go down. And we've found, based on our research, and we've looked at all his movies and all the Oscars, and we've put them side by side, and we've discovered that when his eye nice and plump and round, like a giant catfish or a giant squid, and you can see his pupil and the white of his eye. Oh, there's a lot of black entertainers at the Oscars.

Okay. But when his eye all beat up, when his eye all smashed up, like maybe he fell off a roller coaster or maybe, you know, there was an old lady on a porch and a rocking chair, maybe he laid down underneath the rocker, and an old lady just kept rocking on his eye, squishing it and then off and squishing it and then off and squishing it and off. I get it.

She's squishing his eye. Oh, maybe, you know, maybe a cat, a wild bobcat or something jumped up and just slashed his eye up and bit it all up, and it swelled shut. Like, you ever see a clam closing in the ocean and just close up real tide and squirt water and whatnot? Okay, his eye does not squirt water, sir. I don't know. Sometimes it get pretty runny, and you can't see in it. And during those movies, the white people,

tend to shy away, if you will. They start to exclude the black population from the whole Oscar ceremony. And this goes right down to our research up at Berkeley, sir. Well, this is very peculiar. I'm not sure I'm buying, sir, that white people, when they see Forrest Whitaker's eye shot or nearly shot, it freaks them out and they don't want black people at the Oscars versus when his eyes looking healthy

in another movie, it's open, then that's when the black community gets in on the Oscars. I know it may seem about a little bit outrageous, Mr. William, but if you look at it on paper, it's absolutely, We're following biarrisms, and we're trending all his movies, and it's irrefutable signs. Okay, well, if you're saying that white people exclude the black community when, I can't even believe, when Forrest Whitaker's eye is sealed shot.

Yeah, when his eye be smashed up, like maybe he got, you know, some poison ivy on it, or maybe he was walking. and he looked up in the sky and he was by a construction site and a brick fell off the top of a building and hit him in the left eye or whatever. We don't know how far as Whitaker I, you know, go big and go small all the time. But it's all part of a research. So then why, how do you explain?

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Code Harland. Have fun. Don't throw your back out. When African Americans have a good year and there's multiple nominations for African American actors, writers, and directors, etc. Like last year, 12 years of slave, you know, got all kinds of nominations. And I believe it won for best pitcher, best director. I'm not 100% sure, but, you know. Well, we attribute that, sir.

Are you familiar with a wonderful, wonderful African-American actor? Just the treasures to our community, Mr. Morgan Freeman. Absolutely. Everyone knows Morgan Freeman, the Shawshank Redemption, a Million Dollar Baby, all those great movies. That's right. And let's not forget he was on electric. company in his early years.

Yeah, the electric company show, yes. Well, we found that, are you familiar with Mr. Morgan Freeman on his face? He got little freckles all over his cheeks, a little dardy freckles all over his cute little cheek? Yes, I've seen the freckles. They're kind of like his trademark, the way Cindy Crawford has a mole, or Marilyn Monroe had a mole. Well, Morgan Freeman, he just got, we don't even know how many. We tried to freeze frame his face in Shaw Sank Redemption.

We tried to free frame his face when he played God in Bruce Almighty with Mr. Jim Carrey. And it seemed like the way Forst Whitaker's eye bounce around like a Mexican jumping bean on a trampoline, it looked like Morgan Freeman's speckles. They come and go like a Tanzania sunset. Okay. What's that mean? Well, our research indicate that when Mr. Freeman got lots of speckles on his face, African-Americans are prominently featured at the Oscars.

But when his records are down and Morgan Freeman's aisle bashed up, like, you know, maybe he walked into a helicopter propeller, or maybe, you know, he was at a baseball game, and one of the badders they hit a foul ball at 100 mile an hour and it flew right back and he hit force

Whitaker right in the eye there Sir, are you laughing? I know, sir. I got a little tickle in my throat and it's just an unfortunate reality for the African-American community that Force Whitaker left eye

be the gauge for how well we do at the Oscar and Morgan Freeman's Speckos also. But this is a documented science. Okay, well, you're the guy doing the hard work up at Berkeley, and I'm not going to sit here and contest it. I mean, it sounds a little far-fetched, Professor Grimes. And I'll be honest, as a Caucasian, as a white person,

I feel a little bit insulted that you're implying that that's how fickle we are, that if Forrest Whitaker's left eye is all bugged out, we don't want African-Americans at the Oscars. But if Morgan Freeman speckles on his cheeks are in bloom, I guess, or in due prominence, we want African-Americans. And I'm glad this research is coming from you and not me because, you know, on its surface, it just seems really off-color, sir. Well, we deal with facts, and we deal with figures.

And we just call it as we see it, and we are working very hard up here at Berkeley. And we hope next year that Forrest Whitaker could get some eye cream or maybe a patch, and maybe his eye get back to normal and nice and round like a pumpkin eye or something because we don't want to sit out in such a prominent global celebration of the artistic merit of human beings in general. and in this instance, Mr. William, the African-American community. I understand, and we don't want anyone sitting at. We want all cultures to be involved in the Oscars. Absolutely.

But, you know, I think I'll leave it there because I'm just feeling a little uncomfortable with your ideas here, sir. Well, I understand it. As you know, Mr. William, when it comes to race, and it comes to the black and white the black and white what the word I'm looking for I'm not sure sir

the black and white why don't we say dichotomy and it's always a tense but I believe we're doing some some good work up here at Berkeley and if Forth Whitaker could just somehow get some toothpicks in his eye and hold him open

or you know something, maybe do some eyelid exercises, maybe at night before bed he stretch his eye, you know, put some string on it or something and stretch that eye out. Maybe next year we're going to

have a good year at the Oscar. Okay, well, let's leave it there. Professor Rutherford Grimes, Professor of African-American Social Sciences and Social Studies up at Berkeley, California. Professor, thank you so much for your insight today.

Thank you, Mr. Williams, and enjoy the Oscars, nonetheless, we're all human beings. Absolutely. Well said, sir. There he goes. Wow. I'm a little,

I'm a little dumbfounded by this one, but I had no idea. I had no idea that they were researching this, that... um yeah he's hung up roger yeah he's he's gone uh but i just want to say for the record uh this these are his uh opinions and and his research and i don't know that i necessarily agree with it so we'll leave it there we'll let we'll let you folks decide we'll let the people decide and um boy i did not kind of see that coming but again they're the ones doing

the work. So, uh, let's move on and, uh, get on to something else. One cheeseburger with everything coming up. Hello? Hello. Harlan. What's up? My Canadian brother. This is Chuck calling from the Ozarks in the Midwest of the United States of America. Hey, love your podcast, man. to this day

Rocket Man is still one of my favorite movies I understand we have some things in common like you like fishing I live in the vast fishing capital of the world and you I'm wondering if you play guitar or not

anyway love your podcast funny funny funny keep it coming well thank you very much good sir I will keep it coming and yeah man I love fishing I go to a lake up in northern Canada every year

Just about every summer and it's a great bass lake I go fishing for smallmouth bass And I have this favorite spot I go to It's kind of I kind of sit the boat About I don't know Maybe 80 feet offshore And I cast into this little This little bit of weeds

And the weeds One side of the weeds is shallow probably about three feet deep and then right in the middle of the weed patch there's a drop off that goes down to probably about eight or nine feet and it's just this perfect little underwater shelf

where the bass loved to sit and they got the weeds they got their eye on the deep they got their eye on the shallow and I always do really well there so thumbs up right on to bass fishing man as far as guitar

go, I did try to learn to play the guitar at one point. I was doing a show out in Eastern Canada in, I think, New Brunswick or Nova Scotia. And back in the day, I used to have long hair, you know, over my shoulders. I looked like Jesus. And I always loved music. And I always was jealous of guys that could play the guitar. And I thought, man, I just got to sit down and do it. And, you know, I didn't know much about guitars and instruments.

I just thought, okay, a guitar is a guitar. So I'm out on the road doing some stand-up comedy with these other guys out in Eastern Canada. And we're driving along, and I see a garage sale going on on the side of the road, out in the middle of the bonies. And I tell the guy driving, I say, hey, pull over. I want to go look in the garage sale. And I go look, and there's an electric guitar. And the brand name, I still remember it.

It was a K. It was either a capital K or it was K-A-Y. It was a K guitar, and I think basically they made them for, like, you know, low-end stores like Walmarts and stuff like that. And I was like, oh, it's an electric guitar, yay. You know, I didn't know. And so I picked up this electric guitar. I think I got it for like $15 or something, ridiculous. and I carried it with me

and I took it back with me on the plane and it was funny because right away just the fact that I was kind of looking like a rocker got me the one and only time well not the one and only time but one of the few times I've ever had kind of a flight attendant kind of come on to me I got on the plane home from Nova Scotia back to Toronto

I've got my long hair I walk on the plane with this electric guitar slung over my shoulder. I'm sure if the girl who saw it knew anything about guitars, she would have gone past, low rent. But nonetheless, I guess I looked kind of cool strutting on board with my long hair and my electric guitar. You know, I looked like Bon Jovi. You know, I'm a cowboy on a steel horse I ride.

I'm wanted, wanted, dead or other. Probably dead. But anyways, got on and we're flying along, and all of a sudden it was kind of like winning a raffle or something. Like partway through the flight, in those days they call them stewardesses. One of the stewardesses came on the loudspeaker, and I was like, Uh, yeah, this is a message for, uh, the, the passenger in flight E 37. If you could come forward and speak to the, uh, lead flight attendant, uh, passenger E 47.

And I, I was like, wait a minute. And I looked up and I realized that's my seat. And, and I wasn't sure what was going on. And so I thought, well, I guess I'll just wait till the end of the flight or something. I didn't, I didn't know what to do. I was kind of new to flying, and I was, you know, I was busy being a rock star. I was busy being Bon Jovi, man. And so I waited until the end of the flight, and as I'm getting off the plane,

I go, hey, listen, I was the guy in E-47. I think you guys called me. And the lead flight attendant goes, oh, yeah, Carol, she's one of the attendants here. She thinks you're super hot and wants to go out with you. And I was like, whoa, whoa, what? but this was all as I was kind of in that bye moment

you know when the stewardess is from Saturday Night Live thank you bye bye bye it was kind of right in that moment so I didn't have time to react I didn't have time I looked at the the girl she was referring to who was cute as hell

but my moment passed and I was like oh man she probably thought it was like some kind of rocker band dude man and she wanted to like You know, all the girls like the band did. Because I got to be honest, if I didn't have that electric guitar, I don't know if that would have happened, man.

So I'm crediting the electric guitar with getting me some heat from the ladies, okay? And then I'm walking down to baggage claim. I'm walking away, and there she is. And I actually said, hey, how's it going? And she looked very flustered and nervous because now we were outside the confines of the plane. You know, in the plane, you're in that encapsulated world where they're kind of in charge and they've got you kind of in their grip because you're on their plane and there's nowhere to go. And now that we're out in the real world and we kind of bumped into each other, it was very awkward. And it sucks because back in those days I wasn't quite as confident with the ladies.

And I didn't know what to say or do. and I could see him in her eyes that had I just said, hey, let's get together. She probably would have been like, yeah, let's bon jovie. And, you know, I was just like, oh, okay, well, see you later. And she was like, oh, I'll see you later. And it was just awkward and weird, and I blew my rock groupie moment. Damn it.

So there you go. I guess I better stick to bass fishing, right, dude? Damn it. Damn it. I wonder if Bon Jovi bass fish is. He probably ass fishes that guy. Anyways, that's my story. Thanks for calling in. And don't forget, you can call in at 323-739-4330 if you want to leave a voicemail.

Or you can write to me at harlindwilliams.com just as easily. And I might read your letter on the show. always fun to get mail and phone calls from you guys and there you go I'll leave that right there how's that sound boys and girls let's get to some announcements I know you love this part but you know I like you guys to know where I'm at

so that you know you can get out and see me live and have some laughs with me man so what is going on what is going on next let's see This weekend, oh my God, so exciting. This weekend, I will be in San Francisco at Sketchfest, okay? You've got to come out for this thing. Sketchfest is, it's going to be great.

I'm going to be doing the Harlan Highway podcast live at a theater in San Francisco at like 4 o'clock in the afternoon. It's going to be a two-hour show. It's going to be a blast. So go online, go to harlornwilliams.com and get your tickets under my stand-up comedy schedule page, okay? And also I'll be doing other shows around town. You can also find those at the same link on my site, harlewilms.com. While you're there, look around the site. Join my YouTube channel starting February 1st.

We start airing the first episode of my epic movie. my almost four-hour movie that I wrote and directed called Fudgy Wudgey Fudge Face, probably the dumbest movie ever made, full of great comedians, and it's twisted and demented. If you like twisted and demented movies, you'll probably get off on this thing. But it's a long movie, so I decided to release it in five-minute segments every Monday,

and if you subscribe to my YouTube channel, you will be the first to see the episodes every Monday. So hopefully they bring you some laughter. All you got to do is go to my website, and at the bottom of the homepage, you'll see the YouTube icon. Just click on it, and you're subscribed. No gimmicks, no tricks. You're just on board.

So it'll be a lot of fun. And I hope you guys get on the fudgy wudgey-face train. And then the following few weeks in February, I will be in Orlando, Florida, the first week of February, at the improv. And then in the middle of February, I'll be at the West Palm Beach Improv in Florida. And then the last week of February, the third, yeah, the last week of February, I'll be at the Brea Improv in California, Southern California. Really cool stuff, Flirtle Norgans and Blurgens.

Don't forget to check out my app if you have an Android phone, Philopio, if you want to shoot sperm in the phone. Philopian tube, you will have a lot of fun. It's on the homepage of my website. And don't forget the store. You can pick up T-shirts and paraphernalia and goofy stuff. The Magic F-Off T-shirt is for sale in there. Go watch the video, see how it works.

I think you'll be hooked. It's a ton of fun. So there you go. That's all we have time for today. Thank you. I want to thank, I guess, Professor Rutherford Grimes for his analysis of the race-slanted to Oscars. Very interesting insight from him. And I want to thank

you guys for being here and listening. Bless you, my children, for you have not sinned. That's it. And until next time, Chicken! Shao Man, baby!