Stacey Dash blogged about her confusing appearance at the Oscars
If you caught the Oscars last night, you probably noticed there was a lot said about diversity in Hollywood. Host Chris Rock didn’t mince words when it came to drawing attention to the fact that there wasn’t a single actor of color nominated in any of the four major acting categories for the second year in a row. He addressed the #OscarsSoWhite issue head-on, repeatedly, and we love him for it.
The question of diversity was a running thread throughout the night, and at one point, things got a little awkward. After showing a montage of all the films nominated for Best Picture, hilariously edited to include black actors (Tracy Morgan especially cracked us up), Rock introduced Stacey Dash as the “Director of our new minority outreach program.” Dash walked onto the stage, smiled and waved like a beauty contestant, then said, “I cannot wait to help my people out. Happy Black History Month,” before quickly exiting.
The whole thing was a little puzzling and uncomfortable. Stacey Dash is an actress (you probably remember her as Dee in Clueless) and a contributor at Fox News. Last month, she enraged a lot of people when she spoke out against about Black History Month, said the #OscarsSoWhite movement was “lame” and called for an end to the BET Network. Was it supposed to be a joke? An apology? No one seemed to know. Stars in the audience like Chrissy Teigen and The Weeknd appeared equal parts confused. We really didn’t get it either.
But today, in a blog post for Patheos called “Who is Stacey Dash and why did she just walk across the #Oscar stage?,” Dash is speaking out about her appearance last night. She says participating in the Oscars was her way of helping to bring diversity to Hollywood, not just diversity of skin color, but diversity of ideology. She writes, “After all, different colors of skin is an easy kind of diversity. Ideological diversity is much harder, because it forces everyone to come face to face with actual beliefs. Hollywood needs BOTH.”
Dash is politically conservative, which she talks about in her upcoming biography. At Patheos, she says she’s been mocked for her beliefs. She says this experience is what led her to speak out against #OscarsSoWhite. “Since I was blamed, mocked, and ridiculed in the press over supporting a Republican, I’ve spoken out about a LOT of stuff that black people try to stuff down my throat.”
We’re still not sure we get the joke. Maybe it’s a good thing that Dash is trying to explain herself, but people still seem baffled by the entire ordeal. We think Jesse Tyler Ferguson says it best:
