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”MAKE THE MONKEY FRIENDLY” -

Before #OscarsSoWhite

Diversity in Hollywood is more than a black-and-white issue. 

“We have become a generation of diversity. We have mixed the coffee with the cream, so to speak. People have blended together. That is our truth. And our films should reflect that.”

– Sacheen Littlefeather, activist speaking about diversity in Hollywood today

Back in 1973, the Academy made actor Marlon Brando an offer he absolutely refused. He won an Oscar for his role in “The Godfather” that year. But instead of Brando walking up to accept the award, actress and activist Sacheen Littlefeather took the stage on his behalf, refusing the award. In front of millions of TV viewers, she used the opportunity to make a political statement decrying the stereotyping of Native Americans in movies and TV. 

“It’s hard enough for children to grow up in this world. When Indian children watch television, and they watch films, and when they see their race depicted as they are in films, their minds become injured in ways we can never know.”

Fast forward to 2016: Jada Pinkett Smith recently wrote to Littlefeather saying that watching a clip of the Oscars speech provided validation for her boycott of the Oscars this year.

Read more of a Q&A @dexdigi did with Littlefeather on the bold statement she made over 40 years ago.  

Here’s a few amazing photos we found in the archives of Donna Summer. Check out the last one, of her joking with Betty Ford and former president Gerald Ford. That was taken at a “disco party benefit” show in 1979. 

Here’s an excerpt from a writeup of the party, including a description of “older guests” complaining about the loud disco music, from the Nov 5th, 1979 LA Times:

Another bit of LA and Donna Summer history: You’ve probably heard this track, “She Works Hard for the Money”, off her 1983 album of the same name:

A lot of people might know that this is one of the first videos (maybe the first?) by a black woman to receive heavy rotation on MTV.

But you might not know that the song is based on the time she saw a woman working as a bathroom attendant at Chasen’s, a legendary restaurant in Beverly Hills. 

That restaurant, by the way, was about a mile and a half away from the ballroom where the first picture in this post was taken.

Donna Summer passed away in 2012. You can read more about her life here.

Hey, my name is Dexter, I’m black, and I’m from southern California.

When I was in college, which was a few years ago now, a lot of friends used to make fun of me because I was really strict about how I drove. If you got in my car, you couldn’t ride without a seatbelt, I wouldn’t speed – I would never go over the speed limit – I wouldn’t make illegal U-turns, things like that. And so my friends would kind of joke with me and say, ‘Oh you’re a goodie two-shoes’ or whatever. Which is especially kind of funny for them, I guess, because I had this sports car which, it wasn’t expensive, but you know, I kept it clean and it looked nice.

And one of these friends who used to kind of poke fun at me – I won’t say what she was, but young lady my age, and I’ll just say that she wasn’t black and she wasn’t brown. I don’t remember where we were going but it was after dark and I think picked her up from her place, we were driving, and I think we got about two blocks before we were pulled over.

So I saw the flashing lights and the sirens and I pulled over and they didn’t say I was speeding, they didn’t say tags were expired, anything like that, they just said they were checking, they were just checking, that’s what they said.

And they pulled the flashlight out, they shined it on me, they shined it on her, they asked if she was OK, and she said yeah. And then let me go once he saw my license and registration.

So I think she was a little confused, but we kept driving. And I think I got maybe another 10-15 blocks or so before I got pulled over again. Same thing happened — I wasn’t speeding, I wasn’t doing anything wrong, they just pulled over and they said they were just checking, this was a different officer. And again, I showed my driver’s license, I showed my registration, I was very police — ‘Yes sir, no sir’ — and eventually they said ‘OK. Sorry for taking up your time, go ahead.’

As I was driving, I realized that the person sitting next to me was shaking, and I looked over at her and she asked me, ‘Is this what happens? Is this what it’s like?’ And I didn’t really know how to answer her because yeah, it is. And black people, black men do get pulled over a lot for no reason, and I’d been profiled constantly, and it was to the point where actually it didn’t bother me anymore because I was so used to it. But it really affected her, she was actually furious — she was saying ‘I can’t believe they’d do this, this is wrong, we have to do something about this, can’t we call somebody, can’t we go anywhere.’

Maybe I was a little insensitive but I said no, I don’t think so – I can’t think of anything to do right now, let’s just go to wherever we’re going. And she started crying and I didn’t know what to do, and so we went wherever we were going – I don’t remember at this point – but she never rode with me anywhere ever again.

- Dexter Thomas