When addressing its diversity issue, the Golden Globes clearly understood the assignment
OPINION: The Hollywood Foreign Press Association tried to atone for its previous (racist) sins, and Black Twitter was there to provide the best commentary.
After two years of being embroiled in a scandal around the lack of diversity in its ranks, the Golden Globe Awards, which is put on by the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, aired for the first time in two years on NBC Tuesday night.
I know we all went into this thinking the same thing: They finna give awards to everybody Black so we can shut up about their lack of diversity.
We weren’t entirely wrong in thinking that.
Comedian Jerrod Carmichael was the host, and he started the night off by telling the gathered crowd, “I’m here because I’m Black,” referring to himself as “the Black face of an embattled organization.”
That quip pretty much set the tone for the evening. Throughout the show, Carmichael slipped in jokes about everything from the Will Smith Oscars slap to the mysterious disappearance of Shelly Miscavige, wife of the Church of Scientology leader David Miscavige. Shelly disappeared from the public eye in 2007 with no explanation and has not been seen or heard from since. There has been rampant speculation about what has happened to her. Carmichael said he found the three Golden Globe Awards Tom Cruise returned backstage and was willing to trade them for the return of Shelly Miscavige.
After Carmichael made the joke, outspoken former Church of Scientology member Leah Remini tweeted out a clip of it, thanking Carmichael for making the reference and asking the question, “Where is Shelly?”
You know nothing gets by Black folks, and one Twitter user pointed out how Tom Cruise’s “Top Gun: Maverick” costars completely ignored the joke as they presented the next award.
For the most part, Black folks seemed pretty happy with the way Carmichael handled himself while hosting the show.
If there were a cringe moment to call out, it would be when Carmichael referred to the Beverly Hilton — where the award ceremony took place — as “the hotel that killed Whitney Houston.”
That was just gross.
But anyway, let’s get to all the Black people winning.
Angela Bassett won Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role in Any Motion Picture for playing Queen Ramunda in “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever.” It was her second time winning a Golden Globe; she won in 1994 for her role as Tina Turner in “What’s Love Got To Do With It.”
The queen quoted Toni Morrison in her acceptance speech, and her No. 1 fan, husband Courtney Vance, filmed her acceptance speech from the audience on his cell phone, and we all stan. Get you a husband like Courtney.
Black Twitter had a lot to say about both the win and the reaction from her husband.
Tyler James Williams, who a lot of us Gen X women have had inappropriate thoughts about ever since we saw him do that little rap on Sway’s morning show, won for his role on “Abbott Elementary,” and the living legend of comedy, Eddie Murphy, gave him a standing ovation.
Twitter gave him his flowers, too.
Quinta Brunson also won for “Abbott Elementary,” and we always stan Quinta just because she is so tiny and cute and humble and funny and we want all the things for her.
Michelle Yeoh, who is not Black, won an award as well, and the reason Black folks stanned her moment is that they started playing the “wrap it up” music during her speech, and she immediately told them to stop, letting them know she could beat them up if they didn’t.
You know they turned that music off right? Black people were like:
Zendaya won an award for “Euphoria,” but she wasn’t there to get it, so we couldn’t gush over her the way we wanted to.
Jennifer Coolidge, who is also not Black, but is a Black people fave for whatever reason, had one of the funniest moments of the night, and that got people talking:
She ended up winning in her category, and even though we wanted Niecy Nash to win that one, we still cheered Jennifer on because how can you not like her?
So many Black people (and people of color in general) were winning, and for a while, we weren’t sure if they were going to give any white folks awards at all.
Ryan Murphy, who has basically created everything good on television ever, was presented the Carol Burnett Award by Billy Porter, who starred in Murphy’s show “Pose.”
Instead of talking about himself and his work in his speech, he used his time to honor people of color as well as LGBTQ+ people he has had the opportunity to work with over the years, including starting the speech by having everyone applaud Michaela Jae Rodriguez, who won an award for “Pose” last year but never got her moment to shine as the award ceremony was not aired.
Y’all know we stan a true ally.
Julia Garner won for “Ozark,” and even though she ain’t Black either, Black folks love some “Ozark,” and we love the character of Ruth Langmore, so she got some praise as well.
Steven Spielberg won the Golden Globe for Best Director, and I was shocked to find out it was only his third directing award ever, and even though his speech ran a little long, they never played the “wrap it up” music on him, and of course, we noticed that, too.
Shout out to Twitter user @soulamami, who kept a running count of how many people of color won for the night versus how many white people won.
Eddie Murphy was presented the Cecil B. DeMille award by Tracy Morgan and Jamie Lee Curtis. I could go on and on about his long list of accomplishments, but honestly, if you are Black and unfamiliar with Eddie’s catalog of work — including dynamic performances in “Dolemite” and “Dreamgirls” for which he should have won awards, please stop talking to me.
The most important part of Eddie Murphy’s win tonight was his speech, in which he cautioned people to keep “Will Smith’s wife’s name out of your f — ing mouth!”
You know we love Eddie, and we love an utterly Black moment during a white event, so we were talking:
“Abbott Elementary” won best comedy series, and we were here for that as well.
And finally, in a moment that came as a shock to everyone including the people involved with the show, “House of the Dragon” wins won best drama television series, and because we watched it every Sunday as a Black family, I had to make a note of that here. We stan a good family drama.
Overall, the show was good. It’s the first time I watched an entire award show without changing the channel, and that’s saying a lot.
Congratulations to HFPA for pulling this off.
Now let’s see if they can stick to being diverse when next year’s awards roll around.
Monique Judge is a storyteller, content creator and writer living in Los Angeles. She is a word nerd who is a fan of the Oxford comma, spends way too much time on Twitter, and has more graphic t-shirts than you. Follow her on Twitter @thejournalista or check her out at moniquejudge.com.
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