YouSpeak: Hollywood’s Abysmal Lack of Diversity

Once again, no actors of color among Oscar nominations

February 22, 2016
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When this year’s Oscar nominees were announced last month, the news was more about who wasn’t nominated than who was. Where was Will Smith, widely thought to be a contender for a Best Actor nomination for his role in Concussion? Sylvester Stallone bagged a nomination for his supporting role in Creed, but Michael B. Jordan failed to score for his highly praised performance in the same film. Also ignored in this year’s Oscar roster: Idris Elba, who won the Screen Actors Guild Award for Best Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a Supporting Role last month for his indelible turn as an African warlord in Beasts of No Nation.

The absence of a single actor of color among those nominated by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences this year prompted a swift outcry and a resurgence of the social media hashtag #OscarsSoWhite, which began circulating last year after no black actors were nominated, despite an stellar performance by David Oyelowo as Martin Luther King, Jr. (GRS’55, Hon.’59) in the biopic Selma. The film’s director, African American Ava DuVernay, also was bypassed for a nomination.

The lack of racial diversity has prompted calls for a boycott of this year’s ceremony by actors like Jada Pinkett Smith and directors like Spike Lee. It also pushed the academy to enact a series of sweeping changes designed to double the number of “women and diverse members of the Academy by 2020,” a long overdue acknowledgment of the need to overhaul its membership rules.

The 88th annual Academy Awards ceremony is next Sunday, February 28. This week’s “YouSpeak” asks: “What do you think about the lack of diversity among this year’s Oscar nominations?”

The 88th Academy Awards ceremony will be broadcast live on Sunday, February 28, at 7 p.m. ET on ABC.

“YouSpeak” typically appears on Mondays. If you have a suggestion for a topic, leave it in the Comment section below.

Josh Jason can be reached at josh1918@gmail.com. 

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There are 8 comments on YouSpeak: Hollywood’s Abysmal Lack of Diversity

  1. Go to Wikipedia and you will see a long list of black actors who have won awards for best actor and best supporting actor and many other awards issued as well for other catagories. Did the academy have more black members when these awards were handed out? Point is I don’t complain about the # of white guys in pro basketball. I simply say earn it if you want it the way most great people do, by over coming whatever obstacles lie before them and rising to success. I’d be more concerned why there isn’t a category for comedic actors then complain why you don’t see more black actors winning awards when in fact they have been winning right along. The race card being swung here is nothing more than a double edge sword. Stating that you need more black members in the academy to allow more black actors to win is racist in itself and also implies that the current academy members aren’t impartial. It also promotes subjective influence and partiality by stating that having more black academy members will lead to more blacks winning the awards. This entire article is a bizarre outcry without any thought put into it by anyone involved. This is not good journalism. Hopefully my reply sheds light on how skewed this outcry is.

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    1. Oh Ken. Why must white people (of whom I am one) always say that those pointing out racism are the ones bringing up the race card? Black actors are working hard and doing a good job — that’s not the issue. The point is that the proportion of roles/actors in movies that are highly reviewed last year and this year are not represented in the composition of those nominated for Oscars. Of course, there are exceptions (but no — wikipedia does not show a “long list” of winners — there have been 4 black best male actor oscars ever and only one black best female actor ever) but that doesn’t negate the omission of black people from these categories in the last two years.

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  2. Seriously, how did Ridley Scott not get nominated. Oh wait I misread this as something substantive, but clearly you are pandering to mediocre movies.

    The issue isn’t crying over a 2 time Oscar nominee. The issue is that my film courses are 90% white. And if the up and coming auteurs are white, then the stories they tell will be as well. Even the dialogue in Straight Outta Compton felt a little unauthentic, because it wasn’t written by the people who lived those experiences. Hollywood’s answer to diversity has been to cast Annie, Johnny Storm, Wally West, and several other white characters with black actors. If we really ever want fresh stories about diversity, it needs to start with more creators.

    Leo has 0 Oscars, Ridley Scott 0 oscars, Scorsese 1 Oscar. These are the top people of all time and these things aren’t given out easily. Let’s not complain about awards. Let’s fix the issue from the bottom.

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  3. We live in a screwed up world, where racial issues are always one sided. A white professor makes racial tweets, and he gets fired. A black professor does the same, and she gets defended by white people. Ten to one many of those upset at the lack of “racial diversity” in Hollywood have no problems whatsoever watching their favorite basketball team play, even though MOST of the players are black.

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  4. I understand and support the momentum behind inclusion of diversity. But the oscars have been ruined by this #oscarssowhite movement. How can someone accept an award this year? What kind of speech is acceptable? Should they be proud that they won? There’s even an article (in THR or Variety, I forget which one) that guides nominees for an eventless Oscar acceptance. The movement has gone too far, considering the attention worked and the changes are being made, and degraded the value of this award. Disappointed to say the least.

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    1. For those who talk of Black people in sports specifically basketball. You are missing the point. Of those NBA teams how many owners are black or minorities i can guarantee most if not all are owned by white people. The oscars should be reflective of everyone. That’s the point.

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  6. I think there is a fundamental dissonance that has been little addressed between the criteria used to judge an award-worthy film by members of the academy, and the criteria being used by those who have concluded that more people of color should have been nominated. The academy members are acting en masse as a critic, and like any critic, if the academy cannot make a clear and compelling argument to justify its reasons for liking some art forms and not liking others then the nominations should be treated as the subjective opinions of the academy members. I have yet to hear a compelling argument from the academy about the criteria on which the choices were made; so to me, the nominations and the awards are meaningless and its reasonable to assume prejudiced and biased. I’ve been given no reason to think otherwise.

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