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Oscars host Regina King reacts to Derek Chauvin verdict as police brutality, BLM and racism dominate winners’ speeches
OSCAR host Regina King reacted to Derek Chauvin's guilty verdict as racism, Black Lives Matter, and police brutality dominated winners' speeches.
The actor and director opened the 93rd Academy Awards on Sunday with a monologue in which she claimed she would have but on her "marching boots" if ex-cop Chauvin went free.
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He was convicted by a Minneapolis jury on Tuesday on two counts of murder and a manslaughter charge for the death of George Floyd last May.
“It has been quite a year and we are still smack dab in the middle of it,” King said.
“We are mourning the loss of so many, and 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.”
King also spoke out about being the mother of black children and said she knows "the fear" it brings in the US.
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“Now, I know that a lot of you people at home want to reach for your remote when you feel like Hollywood is preaching to you," the Academy Award winner said.
"But as a mother of a black son, I know the fear that so many live with, and no amount of fame or fortune changes that."
King, who is nominated this year for her film One Night in Miami, announced the first winner of the evening for Best Original Screenplay.
The Oscar went to Emerald Fennell for Promising Young Woman.
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King made a dramatic entrance as she walked throughout Union Station - where some of the show is filmed along with taping at Hollywood’s Dolby Theatre.
As she made the long stride to the stage, she tripped in her high heels when walked up the steps.
“Ha, live TV,” she laughed after the brief blunder.
Winners speeches also referenced Black Lives Matter as Pixar's first movie with a black protagonist, Soul, won best animated film.
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In his acceptance for Best Short Film, Travon Free told the audience that an average of three people is killed by police every day.
He added that it amounts to "a 1,000 people a year."
"Those people happen to disproportionately be Black people," he said.
"James Baldwin once said, 'The most despicable thing a person can be is indifferent to other people’s pain.’
"So, I just ask that you please, not to be indifferent, please don’t be indifferent to our pain."
Tyler Perry, 51, also used his speech to spotlight the increase in hate that’s occurring throughout the country.
Oscar winner Viola Davis presented Perry with tonight’s special Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award.
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After he received a long standing ovation, he said on stage: “I refuse to hate anyone because they are Mexican, or white or black or LGBTQ.
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“Or a police officer. Or someone who is Asian. We need to stand in the middle because that’s where change happens, that’s where healing happens.
“So anyone who wants to meet me in the middle to refuse hate, this one is for you!”
Oscars 2021: Regina King TRIPS walking up stage before the star presents first Academy Award of the night
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