Andra Day, Chadwick Boseman, John Boyega, and Daniel Kaluuya Won Golden Globes, but It’s Not All Good. Here’s Why.

White people solo-judging television and film is so normative for them that it didn’t even seem wrong until recently

Ronda Racha Penrice
ZORA

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John Boyega accepts the Best Supporting Actor-Television award for “Small Axe” via video from Angela Bassett at the 78th Annual Golden Globe Awards on February 28, 2021. Photo: Christopher Polk/NBC/NBCU Photo Bank/Getty Images

It’s easy to get swept up in the big emotions of it all. Daniel Kaluuya’s Golden Globe win for Best Supporting Actor in a Motion Picture–Drama for playing Black Panther Fred Hampton in Judas and the Black Messiah helped kick off the show. Fellow Brit John Boyega followed him with his win for Best Supporting Actor in a Series, Miniseries, or Television Film for director Steve McQueen’s ambitious Small Axe series Amazon’s Prime Video. Then there was Chadwick Boseman’s posthumous win as Best Actor in a Motion Picture–Drama for his role as Levee in the Denzel Washington-produced Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom for Netflix with a heartbreaking speech from his widow, Taylor Simone Ledward. And, finally, there was Andra Day’s win for Best Actress in a Motion Picture–Drama as the great Billie Holiday in the Lee Daniels-directed The United States vs. Billie Holiday.

This year, the heat was turned up on the Golden Globes, the annual event of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association (HFPA) that has long kicked off awards season. The Globes date all the way…

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Ronda Racha Penrice
ZORA
Writer for

ATL-based Ronda Racha Penrice is a writer/cultural critic specializing in film/TV, lifestyle, and more. She is the author of Black American History For Dummies.