Latest news with #SacheenLittlefeather
Grazia USA
3 days ago
- Entertainment
- Grazia USA
Doechii Used Her BET Award Acceptance Speech to Address LA Protests
Doechii accepts the Best Female Hip-hop Artist award onstage during the 2025 BET Awards at Peacock Theatre on June 09, 2025, in Los Angeles, California. (Photo byfor BET) Award show acceptance speeches have long been a platform for artists from all creative industries to take a stand. In 1972, Jane Fonda accepted her Best Actress Oscar with a speech against America's war in Vietnam. A year later, Marlon Brando sent Sacheen Littlefeather to reject his Best Actor award for The Godfather on his behalf, in protest of the treatment of Native Americans. From protesting the Iraq war to advocating for LGBTQ+ rights, Black Lives Matter, and the #MeToo movement, we have come to appreciate the platform that speech times provide during awards season. Activist Sacheen Littlefeather speaks after rejecting the Academy Award on behalf of Best Actor winner Marlon Brando. (Getty Images) At this week's BET Awards, Doechii was the latest in the line of many to take on this mantle—dressed in head-to-toe Miu Miu, no less. Accepting her award for Best Female Hip-Hop Artist, she began by acknowledging her fellow nominees before taking the time to address the leading sociopolitical issues of the time. The 'Anxiety' singer began by addressing the anti-ICE immigration raid protests happening in LA, not too far away from where the ceremony was taking place at Peacock Theatre, and the US federal government's authoritarian response to the protestors. 'There are ruthless attacks that are creating fear and chaos in our communities in the name of law and order,' she declared. 'Trump is using military forces to stop a protest. And I want y'all to consider what kind of government it appears to be when every time we exercise our democratic right to protest, the military is deployed against us. What type of government is that?' Winner of Best Female Hip Hop Artist US rapper singer Doechii speaks on stage during the 2025 BET Awards at the Peacock Theatre in Los Angeles on June 9, 2025. (Photo by Michael Tran / AFP) (Photo by MICHAEL TRAN/AFP via Getty Images) She went on to address the weight of influence and the responsibility and influence celebrities hold in 2025. 'I feel it's my responsibility as an artist to use this moment to speak up for all oppressed people: for Black people, for Latino people, for Trans people, for the people in Gaza.' While some may be cynical about celebrities speaking on political issues, we know that influential names can make significant waves with their solidarity and draw attention to issues that matter. That said, speaking up can come with great risk, especially for a budding artist like Doechii. But at last night's awards, she still chose to be the role model we need in these times. Watch her full acceptance speech below. topics: doechii, BET Awards, Award Show, oscars, la, Protests, DONALD TRUMP, Culture, politics, celebrity, celebrity news, hip hop, music, Music News, NEWS
The Guardian
02-03-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
The Observer view on the Oscars: a night of toe-curling embarassment awaits
There is a common complaint among film buffs that cinema, dominated by superhero fantasies and blockbuster franchises, isn't what it used to be. They look back misty-eyed to the 1940s heyday of the studio system or to the 1970s rise of the counterculture auteurs as celluloid golden ages that are destined never to be repeated. It is, then, a rebuke to the naysayers that the 97th Academy Awards boasts a full array of compelling genres: steamy melodrama, political conspiracy thriller, science-fiction action and disaster epic. The only problem is that these descriptions refer not to the competing films but to the ceremony itself, which promises to rival the memorable controversies previously enacted by a profession whose deepest fear is losing the attention of the public. The Native American activist Sacheen Littlefeather's 1973 speech after collecting Marlon Brando's Oscar for The Godfather, and Will Smith's slapping of host Chris Rock three years ago are enshrined in history as triumphs of disorder over stage management. The signs are that the event on Sunday at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood may produce scene-stealing of a similar lasting nature. There's enough going on in the best actress category alone to suggest that it would be a major disappointment if the competition passed without embarrassing incident. Consider Karla Sofía Gascón, who was well placed to exploit the sentimental and novelty votes as the first out trans woman to be nominated in the category for her role in Emilia Pérez. That was until old social media comments emerged in which she derided the prominence of ethnic minority actors at the 2021 Oscars. She was duly dropped from the film's promotion, leaving her about as likely to make the podium as Smith is to be placed in charge of security. Not that her fellow nominee Fernanda Torres will be packing her winner's speech with any more confidence. The star of I'm Still Here had to issue a self-excoriating mea culpa when a 17-year-old clip from a Brazilian comedy show in which she wore blackface just happened to surface during the awards season. And before Mikey Madison, star of Anora, rushes the stage to bag the vacant award, it should be recalled that she was the subject of another rumpus after admitting that she didn't use an intimacy coach in her sex scenes with co-star Mark Eydelshteyn. Throw in the stink around the best film nominee The Brutalist for its use of AI on best actor nominee Adrien Brody's Hungarian accent, and that many feel that a celebration of overpaid actors is not what Los Angeles should be hosting in the wake of its devastating fires, and there are the necessary preconditions for a long night of toe-curling viewing. Sign up to Observed Analysis and opinion on the week's news and culture brought to you by the best Observer writers after newsletter promotion All of which adds up to an ideal way to mark this juncture in our history. For Hollywood's highest calling is its role as the world's dream factory. If the films it produces fail to capture the imagination, then it should at least provide by way of distraction from a collapsing world order an evening of exquisite discomfort. When military spending goes up and global aid goes down, it's time to focus on the important things in life: ancient tweets, bad comedy clips and the bedside choreography of a promising young actress. Yes, there are wars and tariffs and existential threats aplenty. But this is an occasion to dispense with earthly worries and to cherish the performances of the lavishly entitled dressed up in freebie designer costumes and emoting virtuous sensitivity to the watching world. Hooray for Hollywood!
