The White-Washed Oscars: Addressing the Issue is Not Enough

Three Six Mafia winning an Oscar in '06 (Courtesy of XXL Mag)

For many, the Golden Globes are nothing more than a tediously long and drunken way to find out what movies to cram in before the real awards season begins. I myself had watched sporadic spurts of the show, interrupted by more palatable Seinfeld reruns, in an attempt to hopefully appear cultured in the upcoming months when I would have to engage in conversation about movies I should have watched.

So as a continuation on my path to enlightenment, I was on top of social media Thursday morning when the Oscar nominations were announced. The list dragged on, a lot of categories being fairly irrelevant to anyone outside the industry. But as the core categories wrapped up, the Internet picked up on something. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Scientists had nominated an entirely white group of actors. For the second year in a row.

And the Internet was not wrong. Out of all of the five main categories, there was not a single black actor. Movies like Creed, Straight Outta Compton, and Concussion gave the Academy opportunities to nominate hugely popular films with greatly talented actors in important roles. But the Academy did not take this opportunity. (Straight Outta Compton earned a major nomination…for its two white scriptwriters.) And it is not to say that the actors nominated this year are not talented or deserving, but it is like there is an entire section of movies that was somehow glossed over in the decision process. For example, Samuel L. Jackson gave the most Samuel L. Jackson badass-yet-endearing performance in The Hateful Eight, but his name is missing from the nomination list. And while this latest Quentin Tarantino flick has not done that well in the box office, there is a pattern. Jackson has 165 acting credits on his IMDB page, but only 1 nomination to show for the 30-year career he has had as an actor.

And the Academy itself has had issues with diversity. Known for its overwhelmingly older and white male members, it is not shocking to see the group struggle to give attention to minorities. The Academy President Cheryl Boone Isaacs announced a five year diversity plan in November, which aims to add more minority members to the Academy, as well as address the lack of minority roles in Hollywood films. In June, the Academy inducted 322 new members, a group that was uncharacteristically diverse. However aside from actually inviting more black and minority people into the Academy, there seems to be a dead end in the plan. While bringing attention to the lack of opportunity for black actors in Hollywood is great, it is not enough.

And Chris Rock as host does not count for anything, Academy, so don’t try it. Rock as host with nearly no black representation in any of the 20 or so nomination categories is a real life Hollywood version of “I’m not racist; I have a black friend!” It’s like saying race relations in the U.S. are okay right now because we have a black president. (It’s almost like Macklemore winning best rap album over Kendrick Lamar and Jay-Z…Almost.) Without a single black nominee, it’s hard to care about the fact that the show’s host is black. Rock is on the list of black personalities that Hollywood has deemed acceptable, along with Queen Latifah, Morgan Freeman, Samuel L. Jackson, and a few select others, who are used tirelessly to represent an entire race of people in film culture. But even Jackson was glossed over this year in the nominations. A few token black actors are not enough.

Luckily, Rock has a great history of being hyper aware of race issues in the United States, arguably most famously his segment “How Not to Get Your Ass Kicked by The Police,” which aired on The Chris Rock Show in the mid 2000s. And more recently he posted “Driving While Black” on his Instagram- a series of selfies that he took each time he was pulled over driving. So it would not be shocking if he commented on the lack of black actors in the categories. But commenting on the issue would give it exposure, but not much else. When Ricky Gervais made jokes about how unnecessarily long the Golden Globes award ceremony was, and always is, did it make the show any less long? A black host is not enough.

Film is supposed to be progressive. It is supposed to give us a look into certain times, specific stories, and detailed characters. And often the material itself is aiming to capture something progressive. The Danish Girl graced our screens with a timely tale of a transgender woman, and Straight Out of Compton helped us remember the original cop-questioners. But movie topics are not enough, a black host is not enough, and a black host’s commentary is not enough. The Academy needs to be held accountable for the lack of black actors in their nominations, and Hollywood needs to be held accountable for the lack of black actors in their industry.