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Oscars So White, Again: When Will They See Us?
Another year, another whitewashing of the nomination field
When our world becomes too much to bear, art has always been the default that many people turn to. Whether for distraction, entertainment, or enlightenment, art—and good art, at that—provokes emotion. A brilliant film, TV series, or Netflix binge can bring groups of people together in conversation. Through that conversation, sometimes our spirits click and our humanity becomes more connected, more understanding, and maybe, in the most remarkable cases, a bit more open to others who don’t look like us, love like us, or pray like us.
Diverse storytelling has the ability to shift hearts and minds in a way that our politics often cannot. So, what does it mean that yet again, as the awards season comes barreling in, it does so absent any diversity? A few years ago, activist April Reign created the hashtag #OscarsSoWhite to highlight how the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences consistently overlooks films created by people of color. After Reign’s hashtag went viral, changes were made to rules of the academy, which at that time was largely a body of sexagenarian White men. With such a bounty of films and documentaries created over the past year by women and people of color, you would think there would be absolutely no way that entire…
