Actress Stacey Dash calls to abolish Black History Month amid Oscars boycott controversy
The actress told Fox News: “If it was the other way around, we would be up in arms."
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Your support makes all the difference.Social media users have reacted with anger at actress Stacey Dash’s calls for the end of black-focused awards, TV channels and Black History Month, arguing they do not help black people achieve full integration in American society.
The actress, who is a regular contributor to Fox News, was being interviewed over the growing calls to boycott the Oscars this year due to the all-white lists of nominees in the major categories.
Ms Dash said the proposal by certain celebrities like Spike Lee and Jada Pinkett Smith to boycott the event is “ludicrous” and it would be a "disservice" to be selected as a nominee based on race.
“We have to make up our minds, either we want to have segregation or integration,” she said.
Ms Dash said if people choose integration, there should not be channels like the Black Entertainment Network, the related BET awards and the NAACP Image Awards, which "only hand out awards if you're black".
“If it were the other way around we would be up in arms. It’s a double standard,” she told Fox News.
The "Clueless" actress also called for the abolition of Black History Month, because there is no "White History Month". Black History Month is celebrated in October and started in 1967.
“We’re Americans. Period. That’s it,” she said.
There were mixed reactions on Twitter following the interview, but many people thought her view was controversial.
Ms Dash did not receive as much coverage for her remarks in the same interview that despite having a black President for the past eight years, who is “funded” by the “liberal elite of Hollywood”, there remain few leading roles for black actors.
“Why is this only being addressed now?” she asked.