Yay Octavia Spencer!

I would be remiss if I didn't celebrate Octavia Spencer's Oscar win all up in the House of LadyLee!

Hooooooraaaaaayyyyy!!!

Good for you, honey!

Octavia, aren't you glad you didn't listen to the haters? You know, the jokers who were like, "How dare you play a maid!"

Aren't you glad? I'm glad you didn't.

I'm with Viola. She says it's a part, and it's work. There's not much work out there for black actresses. I am disappointed that she didn't win the Oscar. That's okay. One day, Viola! One day!
When I saw The Help, I must say I liked it. Sure, I'd rather see us play superheros, or have the parts that the white actresses get, but until we get our own money, and are able to fund our own films, and get this: are willing to go out and support our own films, then it is what it is.

You must admit, the situations presented in The Help are a part of our past. I'm thankful now that those times are gone. Yet we still get angry when the films are made. And yes, it is enough to make one angry.

But I've said it before, and I will say it again. The most powerful man in America is a black man (President Barack Obama). The most powerful woman in America is a black woman (Oprah Winfrey).

Now if you don't think we done came up... well, you got issues. We have come up.

You can look at your nice car, nice job, nice house, and your nice cell phone and see that.

You don't have to dress in a maid's uniform and go clean white people's houses.

You done came up. That is all.

And it all reminds me of a convo I had, some 15 years ago, with my Grandfather. I was in my 20s, and I was in a doctorate program, working hard, tredging my way through. I went over to his house one day, to visit with him and my grandmother.

"How you doing, Sweet?" Grandaddy asked as he opened the door for me.
"I'm okay," I replied.

We both sat down in th living room, he in his big chair, me on the sofa.

"How's school going?" he asked.
"Oh, I hate school. I'll really be glad when it's over, because it is so hard."

I went on whining and whining. He sat there listening, no glaring at me.

"What?" I asked.
"You and this complaining. Cut that out."
"But it's hard," I whined.

And he said something to me that I will never forget.

"Your grandmama did not get on her hands and knees and scrub white people's floors so that you can sit here and complain."

*crickets*

I shut up REAL quick then. And from then on, when he asked me how school was, I'd holler

"Fine! School is fine!"

And it was. There was a time when my race wasn't even allowed in the schools I attended. I remember a janitor telling me one time, "Girl, we weren't allowed to even use the bathrooms in these schools, and here you are, attending and getting your doctor's degree."

My how we forget how far we have come.

And how quick we are to look down our noses at people who play roles in films of a past we want so much to forget. A past that shaped us all. It took strong women to deal with that mess.

My grandfather's words ring in my ears when I get to complaining too much. I wish he was still alive so I could hear those words again.

Because his words were true.

No, Grandma wasn't thinking about me when she was making $3 dollars a day plus cab fare for cleaning white people's houses. She was thinking about providing for her family.

And I was family. Future family.

So congrats to you, Octavia Spencer, on your Oscar win.

You did a great job in portraying a painful time of our past. It reminded me of how far we as a people have come...

... And the places we as a peoople are going.