Oscars 2019: does Green Book deserve to be called ‘lying white guilt trash’?

It was a big night for Rami Malek and the Green Book team, and a big night for me too. My palms, closely shaved for the occasion, were sweatier than usual. My tux, freshly laundered and let out, suddenly tightened when the nominations were read out. I was afraid I’d be publicly humiliated, but it turned out that I was a winner. Yes, my Oscar tips were pretty accurate this year — until they weren’t.

I thought I’d factored more racial tokenism than a Bernie Sanders campaign video, and more political gesturing than a fundraising disco for the Democratic Socialists of America. But I got the balance of tokenism wrong. I thought ‘All the Stars’ from Black Panther would win Best Song, but the aptly titled ‘Shallow’ from A Star is Born took it as part of its goodie-bag of consolation prizes. In fact, Black Panther scored lower than expected in the tokenism stakes — deservedly winning Best Costume, but nothing major.