{"id":29091,"date":"2022-03-25T01:19:00","date_gmt":"2022-03-25T01:19:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/?p=29091"},"modified":"2022-03-26T01:27:41","modified_gmt":"2022-03-26T01:27:41","slug":"oscarssowhite-still-plagues-hollywoods-highest-achievement-awards","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/oscarssowhite-still-plagues-hollywoods-highest-achievement-awards\/","title":{"rendered":"#OscarsSoWhite still plagues Hollywood\u2019s highest achievement awards"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Frederick Gooding, Jr.<\/a>, Texas Christian University<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Four Black actors were nominated for Oscars in 2022, six years after the Twitter campaign #OscarsSoWhite<\/a> rocked Hollywood.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the long history of Hollywood snubs, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences<\/a> gets some credit for at least trying to diversify the Hollywood film industry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After all, it\u2019s not a complete shutout for Black actors, as it was in 2016 when #OscarsSoWhite castigated the Academy for not having a single Black actor nominated for an Oscar in any acting category, despite riveting performances by Michael B. Jordan in \u201cCreed\u201d<\/a>, Will Smith in \u201cConcussion\u201d<\/a> and Corey Hawkins in \u201cStraight Outta Compton\u201d<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When the 94th Academy Awards take place on March 27, 2022, its efforts for diversity<\/a> \u2013 and its shortcomings \u2013 will be just as much on display as the designer gowns and outstanding performances.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The four Black actors nominated for the Academy\u2019s highest honor this year are longtime Hollywood stars Denzel Washington and Smith, in addition to Aunjanue Ellis<\/a> and Ariana DuBose<\/a> \u2013 who is also Latina.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These recognitions come on the heels of intensified scrutiny of equitable representation within Hollywood<\/a> \u2013 and concerted efforts by the Academy to diversify. Although there have been winners of color, no Black person has won an Oscar for directing, and only 20 acting awards<\/a> have gone to performers of color in 94 years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Given the 336 Oscars for acting<\/a> that have been awarded over the ceremony\u2019s lifetime, actors of color account for roughly 6% of overall wins.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhile the Academy has made strides, we know there is much more work to be done in order to ensure equitable opportunities across the board,\u201d Academy CEO Dawn Hudson said in 2020. \u201cThe need to address this issue is urgent.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Her response was in stark contrast to former Academy President Cheryl Boone Isaacs<\/a>, the Academy\u2019s first Black president, who was elected in 2013. When asked about the #OscarsSoWhite campaign in 2015 and whether the Academy had a diversity problem, she responded, \u201cNot at all<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As a scholar of American pop culture<\/a> and race in media, I can say Hollywood has come a long way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hollywood diversity<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

On Jan. 15, 2015, Twitter user and activist April Reign first tweeted \u201c#OscarsSoWhite they asked to touch my hair.\u201d Within that day, the hashtag became viral and many Black actors and social activists used the tweet to protest Hollywood\u2019s longstanding racism.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To the Academy\u2019s credit, it responded to #OscarsSoWhite<\/a> criticisms by making steps to reconfigure its nomination process that had resulted in such a lack of Black inclusion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2020, for instance, the Academy established new representation and inclusion standards<\/a> that take effect in 2024. According to its official statements, the new standards were designed to \u201cencourage equitable representation on and off screen in order to better reflect the diversity of the movie-going audience.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But critics have observed how films with virtually no Black characters like \u201cThe Irishman\u201d<\/a> still meet inclusion standards<\/a> by employing a white female casting director and a Mexican cinematographer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Racist Hollywood history<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Racial drama started early in Hollywood.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The first groundbreaking feature-length movie, \u201cThe Birth of a Nation,\u201d<\/a> released in 1915, celebrated the Ku Klux Klan<\/a>. The first talking film ever released in 1927, \u201cThe Jazz Singer,\u201d<\/a>, featured white actors in blackface.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Academy kept alive this tradition, with echoes of racist minstrel shows from the early 20th century, in 2008 when Robert Downey Jr.<\/a> received a Best Supporting Actor nomination for his role in blackface in \u201cTropic Thunder.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Indeed, during the early history of Hollywood, Black characters were openly denigrated by the stereotypical images that they portrayed. Black actors were usually given badly written roles portraying weak, poor or otherwise disadvantaged characters who were dependent on white characters\u2019 heroism.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hattie McDaniel<\/a>, for example, became the first nonwhite actor to ever win an Academy Award in 1939 with a Best Supporting Actress Oscar<\/a> for her sassy, but servile<\/a> \u201cMammy\u201d figure in \u201cGone with the Wind.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"A
In this 1938 photograph, Hattie McDaniel is seen in her role as Mammy in the movie \u2018Gone with the Wind.\u2019 Silver Screen Collection\/Getty Images<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Despite McDaniel\u2019s breakthrough Oscar in 1939 and Sidney Poitier\u2019s<\/a> 1963 Best Actor win for \u201cLilies of the Field\u201d<\/a>, it took more than 40 years before Halle Berry<\/a> claimed the Best Actress prize in 2002 for her role in \u201cMonster\u2019s Ball\u201d<\/a> \u2013 a role that Oscar nominee Angela Bassett rejected due to her refusal to \u201cbe a prostitute on film<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2011, Octavia Spencer won an Oscar \u2013 also for playing a maid like McDaniel \u2013 for her role as Minny in \u201cThe Help<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Still, in 2002, when Berry won, diversity was center stage in Hollywood. That same year, the Best Actor winner was Washington<\/a> for his uncharacteristically villainous role in \u201cTraining Day.\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In addition that year, Poitier received a lifetime achievement award<\/a>, an acknowledgment for many of his groundbreaking roles throughout his career.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"A
Actors Denzel Washington and Halle Berry pose while holding their Oscar statues in 2002. Lee Celano\/AFP via Getty Images<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

A little progress<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Yet, five years after #OscarsSoWhite, British actress Cynthia Erivo<\/a> represented the lone Black acting nomination in 2020 for her role as Harriet Tubman in \u201cHarriet,\u201d<\/a> leaving Berry as the only Black female to ever be awarded Best Actress.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Overall, of the 86 Black acting nominations over the Academy\u2019s 94-year period, over 40% of the nominations have been circulated among repeat contenders like Washington and Smith. Major studios often favor established, sure bets at the expense of new Black talent when it is time to recoup their investments at the box office.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With only a handful of the same Black names garnering nominations, the pool of Black talent celebrated is actually smaller than what it appears.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While in today\u2019s movie climate the quantity of nonwhite images has undoubtedly improved, it is the quality of such roles that remain problematic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The struggle continues<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

For the same industry that can reproduce exacting replicas, orchestrate mass battles and fashion accurate costumes, it is alarming that such a creative industry cannot figure out how to create substantive diversity onscreen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Alternative outlets like Hulu<\/a> and Netflix<\/a> are demonstrating that viable audiences are willing to support a wide range of diverse products featuring increasingly diverse casts \u2013 with \u201cBridgerton\u201d<\/a> and \u201cSquid Game\u201d<\/a> as a couple of recent examples.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But six years after #OscarsSoWhite, the Academy is still struggling to diversify the Hollywood film industry \u2013 perhaps a simple lack of imagination is to blame.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Editor\u2019s note: This story has been corrected to say that four Black actors have been nominated for Oscar\u2019s in Best Acting categories.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

[The Conversation\u2019s Politics + Society editors pick need-to-know stories.<\/em> Sign up for Politics Weekly<\/a>.]<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Frederick Gooding, Jr.<\/a>, Dr. Ronald E. Moore Professor of Humanities and African American Studies, Texas Christian University<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

This article is republished from The Conversation<\/a> under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Frederick Gooding, Jr., Texas Christian University Four Black actors were nominated for Oscars in 2022, six years after the Twitter campaign #OscarsSoWhite rocked Hollywood. In the long history of Hollywood snubs, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences gets some credit for at least trying to diversify the Hollywood film industry. After all, it\u2019s […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":29092,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[7,4],"tags":[11552,11551,11550,2353,1538],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29091"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29091"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29091\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":29093,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29091\/revisions\/29093"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29092"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29091"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29091"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lifeandnews.com\/articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29091"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}