21st Century: Query 133 (Sidney Poitier)
“I lived in a country where I couldn’t live where I wanted to live. I lived in a country where I couldn’t go where I wanted to eat. I lived in a country where I couldn’t get a job, except for those put aside for people of my color or caste.” ~ Sidney Poitier , Bahamian-American actor and film director. He received two nominations for the Academy Award for Best Actor , winning one, by which he became the first black actor to win the Award. Poitier, who turns 93 today, lived his youth and middle adulthood during a time in the U.S. when Blacks were routinely barred from public places set aside for Whites. Discrimination was overt, even in the north, where it was “understood” where Black people could congregate. In 2020, how has the treatment of minorities changed since the 1930’s-1960’s? What is different now? What has remained the same?