Hustle + Oh, No.

It's hard to divest myself from the thought that other black people are my brothers/ brethren; when really, they are not necessarily like me. For example, I'd have a hard time publicly acting and singing about how hard it is to be a pimp when my depicted pimp life isn't very hard. And let's not talk about Crash, but thanks to Dora for sending this analysis of Crash by Jeff Chang and Sylvia Chan.

While Terence Howard had no problems acting as D-Jay, the pimp in Hustle & Flow, he had a few voices in his ear when he decided not to single the song from his hit movie:

HOWARD REPORTEDLY TALKED
OUT OF SINGING AT OSCARS: Longoria
claims Poitier, others said it would be
embarrassing for blacks.

*Terrence Howard was reportedly
approached by a number of black
stars requesting that the actor turn
down the opportunity to perform his
Oscar-nominated song from “Hustle
& Flow” during Sunday’s ceremony.

Howard is up for a best actor
award for his role as DJay, a Memphis
pimp who hopes to become a rapper.
The song he sings in the film, “It’s Hard
Out Here For A Pimp,” has been nominated
for an Academy Award as well. But
as previously reported, the song’s
writers, Three 6 Mafia, will perform
the track instead.

According to the UK’s Mirror
newspaper, actress Eva Longoria said
the actor was approached by several
black stars, includingSidney Poitier,
Denzel Washington and Will Smith,
who have asked him not toperform
the song during the telecast.
“Sidney Poitier said, ‘Do not
get up there and represent the African
American community singing about
a pimp,’” Longoria told the newspaper.

Meanwhile, Taraji P. Henson,
who belted the song’s chorus in the
film, will join Three 6 Mafia on stage
for the Oscar performance and will be
allowed to keep the word “b*tches” in
the chorus. A spokesman for Gil Cates,
the producer of the Oscars telecast,
confirmed that the term was not on the
list of banned words.

Lyrics in the song that do appear
on the list include the N-word, the
S-word and the F-word. After being
asked to perform the track, Three 6 Mafia
members Jordan "Juicy J" Houston,
Paul "DJ Paul" Beauregard and Cedric
"Frayser Boy" Coleman, went through
the lyrics line by line and substituted
various words to make it FCC-friendly.