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‘Hidden Fences’ Golden Globes Mistake: Is It Racist?

By Paula Mooney
Published on: 14:38 PST, Jan 8, 2017

There’s a reason the hashtag #HiddenFences is nearly the top trending item on Twitter at the moment. As seen in the above photo, Janelle Monae appeared at a special screening of Hidden Figures, a film about African-American women and their contribution to the space program. As seen in the below tweet from Ebony, Denzel Washington and Viola Davis star in a movie called Fences, which is included in the tweet next to the movie poster Hidden Figures.

The publication put the two movies’ one-sheets near each other in order to help those at the Golden Globes figure out the differences between the two movies — since they have nothing really in common, except the fact that they have African-American lead actors. Perhaps for this reason, the movies were referred to as “Hidden Fences” — or, at least Fences was called Hidden Fences once, and Hidden Figures was called Hidden Fences once. Twitter soon exploded with a bunch of Hidden Fences memes and jokes and statements like the ones below.

It all began, as reported by Billboard, when Jenna Bush asked Pharrell Williams about his nomination for “Hidden Fences” at the 2017 Golden Globes — and Pharrell gave a sort of side-eye, because Pharrell is nominated for Hidden Figures. Maybe if that were the only time at the Golden Globes that the Hidden Fences mistake was made, it wouldn’t have blown up as much as it did — but another Hidden Fences mistake would be made.

As reported by Refinery 29, Michael Keaton made the same Hidden Fences mistake by calling Fences, “Hidden Fences.” Keaton was presenting the Best Actress award when he made his Hidden Fences mistake. When Williams heard the Hidden Fences mistake, his look made the rounds on social media. When Keaton made his Hidden Fences mistake, the #HiddenFences hashtag eventually began trending on Twitter and Facebook.

One of the Hidden Fences jokes includes the below photo, which combines The Color Purple with Precious to make “The Color Precious,” starring actors from both movies. For the most part, people are taking the “Hidden Fences” movie title slip-up in stride, and using it as an inspiration to create their own mashed-up movie titles of black movies.

Many folks are joking that someone needs to make Hidden Fences as a movie, now that the title is so popular. Hidden Fences is the butt of many memes and jokes, but some aren’t finding the Hidden Fences mistake so funny. Many of the responses to the Hidden Fences faux pax can be read below. And there are plenty of responses to choose from, because folks are talking about Hidden Fences on Facebook, Twitter, and elsewhere online.

“Somebody really, really quickly needs to release a movie called .”

“The thing is, there are plenty of , but they’re only hidden to those on one side. They’re obvious to those on the other side.”

“‘Seriously? ? Who would make a stupid & careless mistake like that?’ –Yahoo Finance twitter manager”

“Welp…I can just skip straight to #HiddenFences #TheyAllTheSameMovieApparently”

“Why did I get married too pootie tang ”

“ A riveting drama about the racial issues in America that only Black people see. Based on a true story.”

“This keeps happening cause racist white people don’t see different films they just see black people ”

“Black people already took off with the #HiddenFences tweets. I’m in tears.”

What say you? Is “Hidden Fences” an innocent slip of the tongue, or some sort of deeper Freudian slip? Sound off in the comments section below.

[Featured Image by Richard Shotwell/Invision/AP Images]

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