By: Katrice Mitchell (’16), Staff Writer and Editor-in-Chief
As a media savvy movie buff and lover of everything pop culture, the topic “#OscarsSoWhite” caught my eye. As I was writing this I began thinking how often I watch the Golden Globes, SAG Awards, and the Academy Awards and see very few people that look like me get awarded.
“All the time.”
More often than not there maybe a few sprinkles of color in these award shows, but for the second consecutive year in a row there will be no African-American nominees for the 2016 Academy Awards.
With the Academy Award nominations announced on January 13th, a subsequent firestorm from many African-American actors and actresses in Hollywood erupted.
This is a topic that has divided Hollywood for decades. Some have wondered if the lack of diversity was rooted in the sparse amount of roles African-Americans received in the past. This may have been true in the 30s, 40s, and 50s. Even then there were actors and actresses who were simply ignored such as Harry Belafonte and Dorothy Dandridge for their role in Carmen (yes peeps, Beyonce did not originate that role lol).
Sadly the Academy is not new to #OscarsSoWhite, they are true to this.
The blunt reality is that the Academy simply DID NOT vote for films or roles that African-American actors/actresses participated in.
The way the nomination process works is very simple. For the four acting categories- voters (members of the Academy aka fellow actors) are asked to list up to five names, ranked in the order of preference. These ballots are then sorted out based on the voters’ first-place ranking. Actors who receive enough first-place votes become nominees. After that the process continues until there are five nominees.
This may seem fair but of course it is not. There are less than 30% non-white members of the Academy. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that we are not equally represented.
Since this topic has been everywhere I found it interesting that it has FINALLY been spotlighted with news segments, articles, and many interviews.
While this issue has gained a substantial amount of attention the interesting component is the celebrity reaction on social media. George Clooney, Brad Pitt (a past visitor of swirl-world), Jada Pinkett-Smith, Don Cheadle and many more have spoken out against the Academy’s lack of diversity.
On Martin Luther King Jr. Day, actress and humanitarian Pinkett-Smith released a video on her Facebook page calling for a boycott of the Academy Awards because of the lack of diversity. Director Spike Lee, who received an honorary Oscar last year, also called for a boycott of the ceremony with a photo posted to his Instagram account.
Though Janet Hubert-Whitten (the first Aunt Viv, who has beef with Will) thinks this is wrong, I strongly agree with this stance.
Why should African-Americans continue to perform at the show, present an award, tell a good joke, and maybe win an award at an event where the powers at hand don’t appreciate THEIR art enough to even nominate them?
Now I’m not saying boycott the Oscars forever, but in a time such as this there is nothing wrong with taking a stand for what is right. We must remember that these issues have been prevalent in Hollywood and media as a whole for a very long time.
Eddie Murphy brought this issue to light in his speech while presenting an Academy Award at the 1988 ceremony. His statement speaks to the very issue we are discussing now, “Every 20 years we get one, so we aren’t due for one until 2004. I’ll give this award, but Black people will not ride the caboose of society, and we will not bring up the rear anymore, and I want you to recognize us.”
Sadly there hasn’t been much change in the narrative of African-Americans and the Academy. In the Academy’s 88 year history there have only been 32 Oscars awarded to African-American talent.
The advent of social media and advanced technology has allowed our society to see a furthered discussion on this topic. The hashtag “#OscarsSoWhite” and Pinkett-Smith’s video opened the gateway for an interview featuring Will Smith (whom everyone thought was going to be nominated) and Robin Roberts discussing the open secret of the lack of diversity.
The public disgust of this has prompted the Academy to “make changes” to their lack of diversity. This controversy serves as an example of how social media can attempt to affect change. By giving individuals a platform to express their thoughts and foster two-way communication, we are able to see how social media shapes our society.
Who knew it would only take a video and photo from some of Hollywood’s elites mentioning a boycott of the Academy Awards for the Academy to pull their heads up from the sand?
Pinkett-Smith was right, we need to realize and utilize our power, for we are powerful.
The Academy can not afford to keep snubbing deserving African-American actors and actresses, at least without hearing about it. Surely, Chris Rock will touch on it since he is hosting the ceremony.
The Academy “seems” to have noticed a great injustice they are inflicting upon a community of artists and moviegoers that only want recognition for their art, but the real question is: Will this change?
