Al Sharpton Calls For Emergency Meeting To Address 'Appalling' All-White Oscar Nominees Read more:

[Moonwalk]

14. I know this sound silly, but last year I overheard four young white men arguing over 12 Years...

They said: "'Gravity' should have won! Obama is president after all. Isn't that enough?"

I promise you, that they honestly believed that 12 Years won over (their opinion) the far superior "Gravity" ONLY because it was a "black" movie. These were young men, not, from what I could tell Foxbots, but wannabe Hollywood types. They would undoubtedly view themselves as liberals...but they honestly did not know better.

I would bet money, by the way, that they hadn't even bothered to go see "12 Years." That, or they were too dense to value amazing acting, incredible screenwriting—and subtly powerful direction over 3-D outer space effects. Impressive enough, granted, for best picture nomination, but not for a win over an opus like "12 Years."

So, yes, it sounds silly on the surface—and I'm not saying it's a good idea for Sharpton to make this kind of deal out of this. If you want to argue that he's going about this wrong, that's fair. However, I think there's validity to the complaint and to seeing it as a symptom of a larger issue. Meaning the feeling that when black actors, directors, screenwriters get awards they're token gestures, not genuine. And this is a feeling not just of old white Fox News watchers, but of young white voters who are going into the movie business.

They clearly felt the same about Obama, in spite of his double win. That he was president as a token gesture, not because he honestly deserved it. And that is a very real and troubling problem. There can't be true equality if every time a woman or a non-white fairly earns something it's dismissed as unfairly earned.