Black People Can't Have Everything!

   

    Sinners. The best movie of 2025. A beautiful story of Black resilience, music, culture, history, trailblazing, and vampires. It broke countless records at box offices and had the most nominations of all time for a single film. It won four Oscars: Best Actor (Michael B. Jordan), Best Original Screenplay (Ryan Coogler), Best Cinematography (Autumn Durald Arkapaw), and Best Original Score (Ludwig Göransson). 

    As someone who saw the movie twice in cinemas and probably another four more times at home, it is fair to say that I love this movie. When my friend and I went to see it for the first time, I had no idea what to expect. I didn't know it was a horror movie (so the first 5 minutes had my heart racing and some popcorn on the floor) and did not think it would make me emotional in any way. It actually was not a movie I was looking forward to seeing; I have no idea why, considering how much I love the movie now. Well before the I Lied To You sequence, I was emotional watching the beautiful cinematography and the score and Delroy Lindo in Stack's car humming so that he didn't cry. When Sammie started singing, I felt like I was floating. Seeing generations performing all at once; hip-hop, ballet, and xiqu performing simultaneously; Delta blues, gospel, and griots melding together with Sammie's guitar; time literally stopping as the roof went up in flames. It all made me cry. It felt like the first time I had truly seen Black joy and power on screen. And the end? More tears. Nothing has stuck with me more than seeing old Sammie and forever-young Stack and Mary together, talking about how horrific and wonderful that day was.

    So what is up with the title of this post? I am not talking about the fact that "I Lied To You," Best Costume, Best Hair and Makeup, Supporting Actor and Actress, and Best Picture should have all gone to Sinners. They should have, in my biased opinion. I am talking about the fact that Black people's success cannot be singular. There has to be something else tied to the conversation in order for our success to be deemed worthy.

    As I was scrolling on Twitter throughout the night of the Oscars, I came across a post from the New York Magazine:

The headline is so frustrating! She did not come out of retirement FOR Timothée. She came out of retirement for Sinners. That white man has nothing to do with her or her performance. Ballet would have been included in the performance regardless of him bashing the ballet! The performance emulated what we saw on screen, and there was a ballet dancer there. Misty Copeland, a renowned Black ballet dancer, came out on stage to celebrate the movie and the cultural impact of the scene. But multiple sources reported that she did it to clap back at what Timothée Chalamet said.

    On the same note, when Timothée decided to foolishly bash the ballet and opera communities and his chances of winning an Oscar went down, conversations around Michael B. Jordan's chances now surrounded the fact that he would only win because of what was said. People said that if he did win, it would be out of pity. We could not have possibly been watching the same movie. Michael B. Jordan did not work hard and play three characters for his win to be chalked down to pity. He won because he told a moving story about how hard Black people had to work to achieve anything for themselves in the 1930s. His performance was the embodiment of what a lot of Black people have to remind themselves of every day: You have to work twice as hard to be half as good.

    This idea of Black people's success being too much for people to handle applies to the loss of Best Picture and all of the other awards. If Sinners won everything, people would be fuming, and people would short-circuit. Some people lack the critical lens to watch films and to grasp the deeper meaning of their messages. If they misunderstood Sinners, I am going to try not to assume that they are watching it with their eyes closed and their ears plugged. 

    Do you understand what I mean? We can't have everything. The system will not allow it. There is a moderate amount of success we are "allowed" to achieve, and if we surpass that line, there is something deeply wrong. The minds and the hands and the voices behind Sinners worked endlessly to create something new, but to recognize and award them to the fullest extent would be unheard of, and it seems that it will continue on like that. If we do succeed, will it ever be seen as something done by our own merit or with the helping hand of a white body?

    I don't know how the voting works, and frankly I don't want to, considering it only became a requirement last year for voters to watch every movie nominated. But Sinners deserved everything and more. I am so proud of what they achieved, and I know that so many people will agree with the testament that it was the film of the year. I hope their success is never discounted and always recognized. I hope a new generation of filmmaking and screenplays emerges from this movie. I would give so much to watch it again for the first time, to see a Black film that has so much joy and pride and courage embedded in it.