In 1939, Hattie McDaniel became the first African-American to ever win an Oscar. When she won the Oscar in the best-supporting actress category for her portrayal of Mammy in “Gone with the Wind”. The next non-white Oscar winner came 24 years later when a young and dynamic Sidney Poitier danced his way to the podium to become to first African-American ever to win an Oscar in the best actor category in 1963. 19 years later in 1982, Louis Gossett Junior was the next African-American to win an Oscar. These individuals opened the floodgates and inspired an entire generation of non-white actors and actresses to join an industry that was dominated and run by the white man. The effect of Sidney Poitier winning an Oscar can be best encapsulated by the emotional yet powerful acceptance speech that Oprah Winfrey gave when she became the first African-American woman to receive the Cecil B. DeMille Award for lifetime achievement at the Golden Globes 2018. In her speech, he said, “In 1964, I was a little girl sitting on the linoleum floor of my mother's house in Milwaukee watching Anne Bancroft present the Oscar for best actor at the 36th Academy Awards. She opened the envelope and said five words that literally made history: "The winner is Sidney Poitier." Up to the stage came the most elegant man I had ever seen. I remember his tie was white, and of course, his skin was black, and I had never seen a black man being celebrated like that. I tried many, many times to explain what a moment like that means to a little girl, a kid watching from the cheap seats as my mom came through the door bone tired from cleaning other people's houses. But all I can do is quote and say that the explanation in Sidney's performance in "Lilies of the Field":
"Amen, amen, amen, amen."
And ever since the talent and charm that actors and actresses of color brought to the film industry all over the world has been phenomenal we have been blessed with some of the most talented actors ever to grace the stage. But while these actors showcased their skills quite beautifully the recognition for them among the fraternity was and is staggeringly lacking. Since Hattie McDaniel won her Oscar in 1939 only 17 African-American actors and actresses have won the Oscar in the 4 major acting categories- best actor or actress, best supporting or actress. And this just is the award received by people in front of the camera, when it recognizing talent behind the camera that is the production team the numbers are even bleaker. With no African American director male or female ever winning an Oscar and only 6 getting nominations over the 91-year history.
To be fair to the Oscars, in its 91-year history racism was openly practiced for almost half of it. But what about the last 3 decades when the world was moving from it from its racist identity and the film industry was getting more diverse as the years went by. From 2000 only 6 African-American women have been nominated in the best actress category, out of which Halle Berry won the award in 2001 and to date is the only African-American woman to ever win Oscar for a leading role.
This blatant disregard for actors and producers of color in the nomination process came under intense fire when the Oscar nominations for the year 2020 were announced. Criticism and controversy around Oscar nominations are nothing new. Over the year the controversies have been regarding a lot of variety of issues but this year the nomination took a beating for being “too white”. The only non-white actor to be nominated throughout major acting categories was Cynthia Erivo for her portrayal as Harriet Tubman in the movie Harriet. Many great performers and performances were snubbed. Lupita Nyong’o in Us, Eddie Murphy in Dolemite is my name and the heart-throbbing Jennifer Lopez whose performance in Hustlers didn’t fetch her any nomination in any category. This marked another year of Oscar nominations where the actors of color were overshadowed by an overwhelmingly white list of nominees. The award show did try to make the racial gap by having John Cho and Issa Rae, but the viewers and the hosts saw right through it. Netizens called out Oscar’s naïve efforts to hide the lack of diversity in the nominations by having an Asian man and black women announce. Issa Rae looked particularly agitated when she completed her announcement. #OscarsSoWhite was trending on twitter post the announcements.
Now keep in mind that the Oscars have received flak for not being diverse enough in its nominations for years but Oscars 2020 nominations were just deemed unacceptable. In a time when the world is believed to have moved past its racist history, the Oscars, which is by far the most prestigious award show on this planet, is still not able to recognize all the talent equally is just plain intolerable. In recent times the calls for racial equality and justice have been vocal more than ever. And film fraternity has been on the forefront of this cause so it is expected of an entity which represents this industry to be more racially just and nonbiased, and at least give chance to every actor, actress, producer, director, makeup artist whoever it is to hold that magnificent award in their hands
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