Click here to see an interactive by LSUReveille.com allowing you to observe the breakdown of ethnicities among Oscar nominees over the years.
It’s no surprise that the Oscars have a diversity issue. An issue that stems from decades upon decades of Hollywood catering mainly to white men, which is similar to how our society overall works, but we find ourselves expecting more from Hollywood.
Despite being a world that is often more liberal than conservative, Hollywood’s priorities are completely out of wack. We find ourselves watching more films featuring zombies and vampires than we do with fully realized characters of color. And this isn’t just a race or ethnicity issue, either.
When it comes to gender, there are still a plethora of male leads with women being used as a crutch. Women are rarely given the opportunity to share their talents, on and off screen, nor are they being recognized with prestigious awards like the Oscars.
As an awards show junkie, I wanted to look into this issue a little deeper.
The Oscars have a pretty extensive awards database on their website where you can find anyone or any film that has ever been nominated for the award. They also have a statistics page where they round up some of the firsts like “First Color Film To Win Best Picture” or the “Oldest/Youngest Directing Nominees and Winners,” but there are tons of firsts they are missing.
From the top of my head I can tell you that Halle Berry was the first African-American woman to win Best Actress and that Kathryn Bigelow was the first woman to win Best Director. Both of those statistics are missing on the Academy Awards statistics page. There are actually no firsts relating to minorities or women directly.
Those stats are probably missing because the Academy doesn’t have a good track record with those two groups of people, but to completely omit those firsts shows a complete disregard for their importance.
I decided to round up a few statistics and facts about the Oscars that they don’t include on their website.
1. The first African-American to win an Oscar was Hattie McDaniel in 1940 – for playing a servant
McDaniel won the Best Supporting Actress Oscar for her role as Mammy in the film “Gone With The Wind.” After McDaniel, black actresses have been nominated in either the lead or supporting actress categories 26 times, nine of which were also actresses that portrayed either slaves, servants, or housekeepers.
An African-American male wasn’t awarded an Oscar until 1983 when Louis Gosset, Jr. won for his role as a drill instructor in the film “An Officer and a Gentleman.” African or African-American actors have been recognized 25 times, yet only nine have won.
A recent quote by actor David Oyelowo describes one of the plights that people of color, especially black people, face during awards season:
“We as black people have been celebrated more when we are subservient, when we are not being leaders or kings or being in the center of our own narrative driving it forward.”
2. In 1949 Jeanne Crain (a white woman) was nominated for playing a “white-passing” African-American woman
In the early years of the Oscars, there were actually a few movies that didn’t limit African-American characters to slaves or housemaids, but some of those parts weren’t even given to actual African-Americans.
In 1949, actress Jeanne Crain (who is of Irish descent) was nominated for a Best Actress Oscar in the film “Pinky” for playing a “white-passing” African-American woman…Even though she was actually white and there was an opportunity to cast actual light-skinned African-Americans in that role.
There was a similar situation in 1959 when Susan Kohner (half-Mexican, half-Austrian) was nominated for the Best Actress in a Supporting Role for playing a “white-passing” African-American who had a dark-skinned mother and a light-skinned father in the film “Imitation of Life.” The woman who played her mother, Juanita Moore, was also nominated but neither of the women won.
3. Other people of color such as those of Hispanic or Asian descent are recognized at the Oscars even less than Africans and African-Americans
In the actor/actress categories, there have only been 22 Hispanic people nominated, only six of which have actually won.
When it comes to actors of Asian descent, the stats are even grimmer. While 14 actors have been nominated, only four have won.
4. Winning directors are almost exclusively white and male
Only three African/African-Americans have been nominated in the Best Director category in the Oscars’ history, none of which have won.
In 2005, Ang Lee won the Best Director award, making him the first Asian director to do so. A few years later, Alfonso Cuaron became the first Mexican-born director to take home the prize for the film “Gravity” in 2014.
Speaking of space, there have been more women that have gone to space than have won, or even been nominated, for Best Director at the Oscars. Of the four total female directors that have been nominated, only one has won – Kathryn Bigelow for “The Hurt Locker” in 2009.
Critics and fans alike were shocked when director Ava DuVernay was snubbed of a nomination this year for the film “Selma” which was only nominated for Best Picture and Best Original Song.
5. Every Best Picture nomination this year has a male lead
Now, this isn’t much of a stretch from previous years. Ironically, in 2014, male actor Joaquin Pheonix led the film titled “Her.” However, at least we had Sandra Bullock in “Gravity” and Amy Adams and Jennifer Lawrence completely stealing the show in “American Hustle” that year.
This year, it’s all about “Boyhood,” “Birdman,” and “American Sniper,” films that are all about, you guessed it: boys and men.
The one Best Picture nominee that stands out is “Selma,” which stars David Oyelowo as Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.; the only minority lead among this year’s Best Picture nominees. “Selma” is also the only Best Picture nominee that doesn’t have any actors from the film nominated in one of the acting categories.
This recent video by The Huffington Post gives a little bit of insight as to why the Oscars may not acknowledge minorities and women as much as they should in all categories.
#OscarsSoWhite isn’t just a hashtag. It’s a real problem https://t.co/TDl53Usnr0
The Academy, which is made up of members of the industry that vote for the nominees, is 94% white and 77% male who are, on average, 63 years old. The video also notes that this year’s Oscars in particular is the worst for diversity since 1998.
In 2015, there is no reason for us to have this type of discussion. There is a myriad of talent, on screen and off, coming from people of all races, ethnicities, genders, and sexual orientations. These people continuously produce quality bodies of work yet, year after year; the Academy continues to ignore them.
I have watched the Oscars for years and always reveled in the glamour and the moments victory and defeat determined by whether or not one leaves with a trophy in hand. However, the lack of diversity across all categories is making this ceremony hard to watch. Instead, it feels more like watching the same movie with the same kinds of characters year after year.
Moving forward, the Academy must take the initiative to be more inclusive in its choices, first for those individuals who are admitted as voting members, and second during its selection of nominees.
