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Jamie Foxx Tells AAFCA Awards Racism Is Real – Even If You’re Famous

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Jamie Foxx picked up another award for his performance in Just Mercy as Walter McMillian, a black man in Alabama wrongly condemned to death row for a murder he did not commit.

On Wednesday night, Foxx was awarded the Best Supporting Actor honor at the African American Film Critics Association Awards in Los Angeles. After picking up his award, Foxx said he hopes the Warner Bros. film helps change the perception of “what a black man is.”

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The actor then recalled a personal experience with racism.

“I used to do a joke back in the day called ‘Phew!’ I was doing comedy in Chicago and I had my hoodie on, and I went to this hotel years ago, and the hotel was really nice and white… a lot of white people were at the hotel,” he explained in his acceptance speech.

Foxx recalled when he stepped onto an elevator with some of the hotel’s well-heeled female patrons, the women were terrified.

“I get on the elevator and there were some white people on the elevator, and when they saw me, they huddled into the corner. ‘Michelle, Michelle, get over here. Stacy, Stacy, get over here,'” he recalled the women saying. “They were scared, but then one of the ladies had the courage to look past my hoodie and saw that it was me. She said, ‘It’s Jamie Foxx.’ Phew!”

[Watch the video below]

The audience laughed, but Foxx said the story is an example that racism is real.

In addition to Foxx winning an AAFCA honor, Bong Joon-ho, and Jordan Peele also took home awards. Below is the list of winners.

Best Film: Us (Universal Pictures)
Best Director: Jordan Peele (Us, Universal Pictures)
Best Actor: Eddie Murphy (Dolemite Is My Name, Netflix)
Best Actress: Lupita Nyong’o (Us, Universal Pictures)
Best Supporting Actor: Jamie Foxx (Just Mercy, Warner Bros. Pictures)
Best Supporting Actress: Da’Vine Joy Randolph (Dolemite Is My Name, Netflix)
Best Breakout Performance: Kelvin Harrison, Jr. (Waves, A24)
Best Animated Film: Abominable (Universal Pictures)
Best Documentary: The Black Godfather (Netflix)
Best Foreign Film: Parasite (Neon) | Atlantics (Netflix)
Best Independent Film: The Last Black Man in San Francisco (A24)
Best Screenplay Presented with The Black List: Bong Joon-ho, Parasite (Neon)
Impact Award: Queen & Slim (Universal Pictures)
We See You Award: Taylor Russell (Waves, A24)

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