Oscars Still So White
At the beginning of every new year, there is an influx of award ceremonies and acknowledgments of the previous year’s creative achievements within the arts and entertainment industry. Largely centered around music, television shows, and the most popular films, these award ceremonies — such as the Golden Globes, Grammys, and Oscars — garner a large amount of public attention and celebrate the success of the most talented, and popular, artists and actors of our time.
Of course, with events such as these attracting such prestige and publicity, public attention is heightened and often followed by criticism. In this instance, criticism surrounding the lack of diversity and representation of historically underrepresented groups has been hot on the tails of the Golden Globes, Grammys, and Oscars for the past decade or so, and 2024 has been no exception.
Dating back to Jan. 15, 2015, the hashtag “#OscarsSoWhite” was popularized by April Reign, who took note of the fact that not even one of the 20 actors and actresses nominated for Best Performance was a person of color. Reign, disappointed by the announcement of the Oscar and nominations, tweeted, “#OscarsSoWhite they asked to touch my hair.” Within hours, her tweet had gone viral and served as a platform to catapult long-ignored discussions of race and racism within the film and music industry’s award ceremonies.
Despite the public outcry in 2015, the 2016 Oscar nominations once again all went to white actors and actresses, reigniting the #OscarsSoWhite discussion. This time, Hollywood was forced to respond. A week later, the Academy held an emergency meeting which put into motion the A2020 initiative, establishing “ambitious” new targets for diversifying membership initiatives. These targets sought to “double the number of women and underrepresented ethnic/racial communities and significantly grow [the Academy’s] international membership by 2020.” A2020 has since been deemed a success as the Academy doubled its active female membership enrollment and tripled the number of members from underrepresented ethnic and racial communities.
However, while these statistics show some impressive improvement, there is still much to consider. First and foremost, this success in diversification only reflects actions taken by the Academy. While the Golden Globes and Grammys have long received the same criticism as the Oscars for their lack of equitable representation between award winners and members of the industry, neither have pursued comparable initiatives to A2020. Secondly, diversifying the pool of active memberships does not guarantee that Oscar nominations will experience the same inclusion. For example, even now, no Black director has won best director at the Oscars, and no Black woman has ever been nominated for the award. The Oscars have indeed improved, but there are still vast barriers left to overcome for marginalized groups, particularly for women of color.
Like the Oscars, the Grammys face serious accusations of racial discrimination regarding their award ceremonies. Damning evidence can be found by comparing the results of a report done by the USC Annenberg Inclusion initiative to the percentage of Grammy nominations that went to artists from underrepresented ethnic and racial groups in the same time period. The study found that between 2012 and 2020, 46.7 percent of all artists whose songs made the Billboard Hot 100 were members of an underrepresented ethnic or racial group. To further expand on this number, 37.7 percent of the Hot 100 songs were sung by Black artists. Meanwhile, Black artists received only 26.7 percent of the Grammy nominations in the “Big Four” categories (Album of the Year, Record of the Year, Song of the Year, and Best New Artist).
Unfortunately, there is no conclusive data on the percentage of non-Black artists who are members of underrepresented ethnic or racial groups to compare. Regardless, the distinct difference between Black and white artists charting and receiving Grammy nominations is enough to conclude that there is a clear dissonance between the success and popularity that artists from underrepresented groups receive in comparison to their white peers.
Despite the contentious circumstances surrounding the entertainment industry’s award shows, 2024 appears to be following a new standard of inclusivity for award nominations and recipients. This year, Lily Gladstone made history as the first Indigenous person to win a Golden Globe for her role as Mollie Burkhart in the film, Killers of the Flower Moon. On stage, Gladstone introduced herself in the Blackfeet language, then proceeded with a moving speech: “This is for every little Res kid, every little urban kid, every little Native kid out there who has a dream, who is seeing themselves represented and our stories told by ourselves, in our own words.” Gladstone was not the only Golden Globe recipient to make history; Beef stars Ali Wong and Steven Yeun both won Golden Globes for Best Actress and Actor in a Limited Series this year. With this, Wong became the first Asian woman to win a Golden Globe in her category and Yeun became the second Asian man to do the same in his. Additionally, actress Da’Vine Joy Randolph won Best Supporting Actress in a Motion Picture for her portrayal of Mary Lamb in The Holdovers, while Ayo Edebiri won Best Actress in a Television Musical or Comedy for her part as Chef Sydney Adamu in The Bear.
It is incredible to see these very talented actors and actresses getting the recognition they deserve for their profound performances. What is disappointing, however, is the fact that “history” continues to be made with each award ceremony, showing with utter clarity how many creatives have had their talent dismissed in the past. The bar for inclusivity has always been abysmally low, and now is the time to raise it by expanding our expectations for diversity and inclusivity in talent recognition. There is still a long way to go in the process of adequately and consistently recognizing the talented creatives of underrepresented groups in the arts and entertainment industry, the monumental wins we saw with this year’s Golden Globes award ceremony serve to show the progress we have made but also serve as a reminder for all that remains.
Photo Courtesy of The LA Times.
