Considering African Americans as a site in the context of American cinema as well as capital and commodity in general, his/her body is innately opaque. As individuals move through time and space, progressing in many different directions, bodies are assigned with ideologies and become real things. Essentially the African American body is a conditional statement. One is acculturated as he/she maneuvers the “social apparatus”. While award shows, the award as an item and actors, actresses, directors and technical hands comprise the cinema, it is the audience that sustains the prestige, purchases tickets and ultimately interprets the cinematic image. It is “important” for African Americans and people of “general color” to (visibly) receive awards in order to effectively create new ideologies that can be included in the language and discourse of American visual culture.

Simpson’s essay deconstructs the significance of awards by directing attention to the specific characteristics of the roles which actors/actresses play. Portraying black masculinity to an extreme degree, Denzel Washington won Best Actor. And, portraying a dependent black woman to a similar extreme degree, Halle Barry received best actress.

Although awards are necessary for African American’s and people of color in general to receive, they are merely decorative. A place to bake is of equal importance, if not greater than frosting on the cake.