No matter where you turn, the state and local governments are making headlines, both for the good and for the bad. Regardless of what’s going on in Washington with our current President of the United States, the news has made a considerable trickle down to Texans and most importantly, Houstonians.

ICE raids of undocumented immigrants; Governor Greg Abbott’s threat to the National Football League over a proposed transgender bathroom bill similar to the one in North Carolina; Houston police chief Art Acevedo & district attorney Kim Ogg announcing new drug policies for citizens, the news is a big warp of good and bad. It’s more than likely why the general public feeds off of escapes and February offered plenty of them. Black History Month occurs every day, every minute and while we are in a constant state of championing our brightest, we’re consistently on edge waiting for the other shoe to drop.

Next week, the city’s full attention will dive into RodeoHouston and for the third time in as many months, NRG Stadium will be a ground zero of carnival attractions, thousands of people, food and activity. It’s a warranted and deserved distraction, an opportunity for Houstonians to champion their own and regal with pride about their individuality and uniqueness. How customs from a bygone era can still exist and permeate through our culture. The Academy Awards are Sunday and with more diversity locked into the nominees than ever before, it’s another night where Black Americans will weave stories of strife and being shut out into entertainment.

We felt this sense of anxiousness earlier this month with Super Bowl LI. Then, a team from New England whose main faces in regards to quarterback, head coach and ownership had willfully toed a controversial line by supporting this particular President. Black America naturally sided with their opponents, the Atlanta Falcons. A team from a predominately Black major metropolitan city. The synergy was too good to be true. Sports fans drew up a similar narrative a year ago when Carolina Panthers quarterback Cam Newton had displayed all the flair and poise to not only be the NFL’s Most Valuable Player but our Most Valuable Player.

True to tale, Newton lost his Super Bowl against the Denver Broncos. The Falcons, up 28-3 with less than 17 minutes to go in Super Bowl LI managed to blow a 25-point lead and ultimately fall to the Patriots in overtime. We felt a similar story occur two Sundays ago with the Grammy Awards. Everyone who had bought Beyoncé’s “Lemonade” album, consumed it, talked about it, wrote about it and even taught classes on it had believed it was to be the Album of the Year. There was no way around it. Yet the award went to Adele, further proving to the world that being Black and at your very best will never feel the same as being at your very best. You have to be a supernova on top of another supernova to even feel a decent.

No matter the cultural achievement, the landmarks or more, our entertainment, our escapes are getting harder to consider as escapes. Sunday, Denzel Washington, whom we’ve universally considered as our finest actor will once again be nominated for an Academy Award in the Best Actor category. His lone win came in 2002, after he won for “Training Day”, playing a psychotic, crooked police officer. His most triumphant work in which he played Malcolm X was denied in 1993 by Al Pacino in “Scent Of A Woman”. Washington’s masterpiece of walking through every reinvention of Malcolm Little turned Malcolm X turned El Hajj Malik-Shabazz lost to a blind retired army officer.

Black consciousness wraps itself around our films, our music and our stories because they are considered outliers long before they are ever given their cultural respect and appreciation. Regardless of how universal “Lemonade” meant to Adele and numerous non-Black members of Beyoncé’s BeyHive membership, there will forever be a “…yeah but” attached to the work. It is how we approach everything that isn’t tied to a particular skill set. Because that skill set is continually denied, passed over or merely forgotten.

Phife Dawg of A Tribe Called Quest once rapped with conviction, “I’ll never let a statue tell me how nice I am.” But it’s not the statues that define us, it’s the work. The work of films such as “Moonlight” that told many an audience that masculinity, in particular Black masculinity can be found after years of torment and misguided anger. That “Hidden Figures” could no longer deny the work of Black women in their contribution to the space race. That “Fences”, a tale built around August Wilson’s view of Pittsburgh can remind us of how powerful and necessary family is, regardless of infidelities, fractures, ego or more.

Our entertainment is not wrapped up in value, yet it is a standard bearer for how we carry our pride.

In a recent interview with GQ, Mahershala Ali spoke about two actors who he admired watching as a Black man. Denzel Washington and Forest Whitaker. Whitaker was the last African-American male to win Best Actor in 2006 for “The Last King of Scotland”. Ali referred mostly to Whitaker as a “character actor”. “I draw inspiration from him,” Ali said. “Because in some ways, he's kind of present against all odds. You can't necessarily say what he is.”

As Sunday draws closer, realize that Ali is up for Best Supporting Actor in “Moonlight”. Realize that “Moonlight”, “Fences” and “Hidden Figures” are all up for Best Picture, the highest film award of the night. Realize that this weekend may be the last for a while that we get to translate our emotions away from whatever considerable mess may rain down from Washington bureaucrats into art and entertainment for a considerable while. Black art is beautiful and it won’t be long before that art and the various outlets they provide are stripped away. We’re conscious of the world at large and how more often than not, those under the current eye of persecution could turn into us next. Because the more legislature that strips away the Voting Rights Act and other norms of the Black & Latino communities that gets passed, the more we’ll be forever boxed in wondering where will our outlet to rage and cheer arrive.