Blacks Bypassed for Oscars

* Bruce Kluger’s ridiculous “Once Again, Oscars Snub African Americans” (Commentary, March 21) made me furious for the same reasons he is furious--a lack of recognition from the academy for many African Americans. Yet Kluger makes his point without even mentioning one of the best films of the year, “Beloved.” Did he forget about that remarkable and brilliantly acted film--or, is it because it was a movie about a female, produced by a female and centers around three female characters?

He mentions Spike Lee, Carl Franklin, John Singleton and Djimon Hounsou while ignoring “Waiting to Exhale” and one of the best African American family films, “Soul Food,” for which I thought Vanessa Williams should have been nominated for best actress. He complains about the academy ignoring a certain group of people, then turns around and does the same thing himself.

ROBIN LEIGH MACKENZIE

San Diego

*

Kluger asks all the right questions about why the academy has been so blind to so many outstanding films and performances by African Americans. I would like to add one more item to Kluger’s catalog of undeservedly ignored performances: Harry Belafonte’s unforgettable portrayal, a few years back, of a black Mafioso in Robert Altman’s “Kansas City,” a performance that certainly deserved at least a nomination for best supporting actor, if not the award itself. It was a role completely unlike anything Belafonte has ever done before, but he played the part of a cold, sinister underworld figure with great aplomb. No one noticed, certainly not the academy.

But then, no one noticed the film itself, which enlisted the talents of some of the finest jazz musicians of our day and treated the music with the respect it deserves but seldom gets from the film industry.

PHILIP PASTRAS

Los Angeles