Last Thursday (January 14th) the nominations for the Oscars were announced and, once again, they were overwhelmingly white. (You can see the nominations here) Thus the hashtag "#OscarsSoWhite" resurfaced. The categories that have most folks upset are the Best Actor and Best Actress categories, as well as the Supporting Actor and Actress categories. 20 people are nominated and this year, again, they are all white.
You could argue and say there weren't any good POC films out this year or that none of the many POC actors were good enough for a nomination. Well, that's just not true. "Creed" and "Straight Out Of Compton" are two films that have African American leads as well as many African Americans in the cast that gave phenomenal performances, yet not a single person was nominated. I haven't seen "Beast of No Nation" but I've heard nothing but great things about the film and Idris Elba's performance. None of these films were nominated for Best Picture either!
It's frustrating that this is the norm. It's extremely frustrating that in 2016 we are still hoping for better representation. It's frustrating to see actors that have been in the industry for years, many for decades, not get acknowledged for all their hard work and amazing talent.
So why am I getting so worked over a show that gives awards to other people? Because of representation. Representation matters. Going to the movies and seeing films with casts full of white people can put in one's head that POCs aren't actors/can't be actors. It doesn't matter if you're a POC or not, one can still think this. Award shows like the Oscars draw attention to the behind the scenes work of films like editing and directing. And the same things applies here. When POCs see other POCs in these positions, we know that we can do it too.
So should we boycott? I think that if you want to boycott, do it. (In reality, if you aren't a Neilson house then your views won't get counted no matter what you do.) My hope is that while you're not watching you're doing something more than just changing the channel. Maybe you should tweet about all the wonderful POC actors and filmmakers that deserve to be nominated and add #Oscars to your tweets.
Personally, I will be watching mainly because I want to see how Chris Rock does as host. I'm even thinking about adding #OscarsSoWhite to my tweets.
On Oscar night, live your life. Watch or don't watch, it's your choice. If you're reading this and you're white, I want you to do something for me. I want you to recognize how many white people are in the room that night in comparison to the POCs in the room. I want you imagine what it must feel like to not see yourself represented in so many different fields, because we all know it's not just Hollywood that lacks POC representation.
If you're a POC I want you to keep fighting and speaking up for representation. I really hope we get it one day.
I want to end this with a portion of Viola Davis's speech from the past Emmy's.
" 'In my mind, I see a line. And over that line, I see green fields and lovely flowers and beautiful white women with their arms stretched out to me, over that line. But I can't seem to get there no how. I can't seem to get over that line.' That was Harriet Tubman in the 1800s. And let me tell you something: The only thing that separates women of color from anyone else is opportunity. You can't win an Emmy for roles that aren't there."
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