Celebrities Use Influence for Social Change During the Oscars

Mika Park, Staff Reporter

At this year’s Academy Awards ceremony, the acceptance speeches for awards were a prominent topic of discussion among viewers. This year there were 43 million viewers, so those speeches hold a lot of clout and potential to spread information. While the usual acceptance speech involves many names read off of a list of people to thank, several award winners at the latest ceremony incorporated social issues.

Julianne Moore made a point to argue that there be more representation for people with Alzheimer’s. Graham Moore shared his teenage suicide attempt, seeking to ensure people in that position that life gets better and is worth it. Lauren Poitras thanked whistleblowers, specifically Edward Snowden. She said, “when the most important decisions being made affecting all of us are made in secret, we lose our ability to check the powers that control.” Other examples include the speeches made by John Legend, Common, and Patricia Arquette.

When presented with the Oscar for best original song, singer John Legend and rapper Common seized the opportunity to bring awareness to the state of black men in America today. Their award winning song, “Glory,” was created for Ava DuVernay’s Selma, which focused on Martin Luther King Jr.’s 1965 march to the capital of Alabama to campaign for equal voting rights. This year marks the 50th anniversary of this revolutionary moment in the civil rights movement. Common began the acceptance speech by bringing to light the symbolism associated with the bridge in Selma that was marched on, and that he and Legend performed “Glory” earlier in the year. He explained that “This bridge was once a landmark of a divided nation but now is a symbol for change. The spirit of this bridge transcends race, gender, religion, sexual orientation and social status.” The social factors mentioned that incite hate, tension, and separation in America today are prevalent themes in Common’s music, and using the platform of a high-profile acceptance speech to express hope for change proved effective in spreading word to the masses.

John Legend chose to contrast the events that generated the necessity of the march from Selma, Alabama, with a largely ignored racial injustice that persists currently: the disproportionate prison population. “There are more black men under correctional control today than were under slavery in 1850,” Legend stated, a statistic confirmed by the U.S. Census. One in 3 American black men are convicted felons, and 1 in 11 are currently under some form of correctional control. When contrasted with the 1 in 45 white men and the 1 in 31 of the total population in the same situation, it is evident that there are societal issues that forces the black race to be exponentially more likely to fall victim to the correctional system. His preceding claim that “America is the most incarcerated country in the world” is true, with 2.23 million Americans in prison and is relatively outranked only by Seychelles, a small island with a population of 90,000.

The award for best supporting actress was given to Patricia Arquette for her role in Boyhood as the protagonist’s mother. On stage, after thanking people involved in the film and her life, she went on to thank mothers and women who have given birth. “It is our time to have wage equality once and for all and equal rights,” she proclaimed to her fellow females in the audience.

In the movie, her character is a victim of domestic violence in one of her marriages, goes back to college and gets a degree, and experiences financial struggles as a single mom. None of these circumstances are foreign to the American female experience today. Forty five percent of children raised by their mother fall at or below the poverty line, which is significantly more than the 13% raised by both parents. While only one in five working families are dependent on the mother for income, that amount doubles for working families in poverty. This lack of economic security forces many women to be reliant on men for the financial well being of themselves and their children. This can trap women in verbally, physically, and/or sexually abusive relationships. One in four women will find themselves “victims of severe violence” from partners at some point in their lifetime, and three women daily are murdered by current or previous male partners in America.

The Equal Rights Amendment, which has been fought for for nearly 100 years, has still yet to be passed. By addressing the importance of equal pay and equal rights for women in her speech, Arquette emphasized the severe inequalities women in America are involuntarily subject to due to society’s and the government’s shortcomings.

Her speech left even Meryl Streep and Jennifer Lopez whooping and cheering together in support of the message.