Host Amber Ruffin Delivers Opening Monologue at the AACFA Awards

Transcript

00:00I have to be honest, though, things are, they feel really bad right now.

00:06Between the rollback of diversity, equity, and inclusion, the price of eggs and the price

00:11of Cowboy Carter tickets is up.

00:15Ticketmaster needs to be canceled.

00:16I don't trust anything with master in the name, but you had best believe I got my tickets

00:23though.

00:24Okay.

00:25Could anyone give me a ride home?

00:26I no longer have money for Uber.

00:28It can be hard to celebrate when it feels like our country is taking 100 steps back,

00:35but you know, do y'all remember the good old days when we could proudly say my president

00:40is black?

00:41Remember that?

00:42Now it's, my president is a South African Nazi oligarch with hair plugs.

00:47It doesn't quite roll off the tongue, gets stuck in there, but this room proves that

00:53no matter what they think they can take from us, we will continue to spread joy through

00:58the power of film and our joy is our resilience.

01:03And just like the great Kendrick Lamar said, Hey Drake, I hear you like I'm young.

01:08I'm sorry.

01:09That's the wrong.

01:10That's the wrong quote.

01:11It's the wrong quote.

01:13I'm sorry.

01:14Like the great Kendrick Lamar said, we going to be all right.

01:17And I feel like we're going to be more than all right.

01:20And that's the beautiful thing about, about black cinema and black art in general.

01:24We create in spite of, we boldly tell our stories in spite of, we excel in spite of,

01:33and tonight we celebrate with each other in spite of.

01:37That's why we're here tonight.

01:38Yeah.

01:39So we're going to leave the BS out there for right now as we honor and we uplift our artists

01:45and filmmakers and their little white DEI hires.