What did the Oscars 2021 say about race? Tyler Perry, Regina King and others stood up to prejudice at the watershed 93rd Academy Awards

Apr 27 , 2021

Oscars celebrities speaking out against racism: Travon Free, Regina King and Tyler Perry. Photos: CWH, @tylerperry/Instagram

Travon Free, who won best live action film short with Martin Desmond Roe for Two Distant Strangers, quoted James Baldwin, urging viewers not to be ‘indifferent’

Mia Neal had a message of hope for women of all races when she received the award for make-up and hairstyling in Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom

Amid the glitz, glamour and historic firsts of the 93rd annual Academy Awards, Oscar presenters and winners took the opportunity to direct audiences’ attention to social issues – and especially racism, encouraging American viewers to unite against recent hate crimes and police brutality in the country.

In her opening monologue, actress and director Regina King directly addressed the fallout of the recent Derek Chauvin murder trial, which found the police officer guilty of George Floyd’s murder just days earlier on April 20.

“I have to be honest: if things had gone differently this past week in Minneapolis, I might have traded in my heels for marching boots,” she said. “I know many of you want to reach for your remote when you feel Hollywood is preaching to you, but as the mother of a black son who fears for his safety, no fame or fortune changes that.”

Regina King speaks onstage during the 93rd annual Academy Awards, hosted at Los Angeles’ Union Station on April 25. Photo: AMPAS via Getty Images/TNS

In Tyler Perry’s acceptance speech for the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award, he said: “I refuse to hate someone because they are Mexican or because they are black or white or LGBTQ. I refuse to hate someone because they are a police officer. I refuse to hate someone because they are Asian. I would hope that we would refuse hate, and I want to take this Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award and dedicate it to anyone who wants to stand in the middle, no matter what’s around the wall.

“Stand in the middle ’cause that’s where healing happens. That’s where conversation happens. That’s where change happens. It happens in the middle.”

Tyler Perry accepts the Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award during the 93rd Oscars in Los Angeles, California, on April 25, 2021. Photo: AMPAS/handout via Reuters

Mia Neal, who received the Oscar for make-up and hairstyling in the film Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom together with Sergio Lopez-Rivera and Jamika Wilson, had a message of hope.