Academy Defends Decision to for Oprah Winfrey Honorary Oscar, Critic Patrick Goldstein Says Race Played a Factor

Did race play a factor in the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Science's decision to honor Oprah Winfrey with a honorary award. Winfrey, actor James Earl Jones and makeup artist Dick Smith are slated to receive the Oscar statuette at the annual Governors Awards in November. That's not sitting pretty with many blogs and Los Angeles Times columnist Patrick Goldstein, who called the academy's decision a "boneheaded move."

"Winfrey has done good work in the world, but that's not enough to merit an Oscar," he writes, and plenty of anonymous Internet posters on Wednesday agree.

Goldstein suggests that race played a role in the academy's decision to honor the 57-year-old media mogul: "It is a way of guaranteeing that some people of color will be taking home Academy Awards, even if the honors aren't actually presented on Oscar night."

Academy President Tom Sherak says the Hersholt Award recognizes an individual who "exemplifies giving back to the community, the world, society in an extraordinary way."

"Oprah has given and given and given," he said, adding that she has contributed more than $500 million of her own money to charitable causes. "She's a member of the academy, she was nominated for an Academy Award and she has produced movies. This is not about personality. This is about a person who has come from the depths, risen to the heights and given back. That's a perfect example of why this award was created." 

Personally, I am tired of seeing blacks and Latinos passed over at the Oscar Awards, except to honor Mo'Nique and Halle Berry for roles denigrating women, particularly black women. Oprah Winfrey has done more for the world than all her critics, including Patrick Goldstein, who should stop pulling the race card. Would they have cared one iota if the BET Awards was honoring Oprah Winfrey with a Lifetime Achievement award for her contribution to motion pictures? I don't think so.