here's another look at things:
African-Americans make up about 13% of the US population
20 have been nominated for Best Actor, with multiple nominations for Sidney Poitier (2), Morgan Freeman (3), Denzel Washington (4), and Will Smith (2). so only 13 different African-American actors have been NOMINATED for Best Actor in the 88 years of the Academy Awards.
If we assume 5 nominees in the category each year, that means 20 nomination out of a possible 440 nominations have gone to African American actors, or approx 4.5%
only 10 African American actresses have been nominated for Best Actress. NONE have been nominated more than once. Only Halle Berry has WON.
17 nominations in the Best Supporting Actor category, and again multiple nods to the same actors (Morgan Freeman, Denzel Washington). Only 4 have won.
19 nominations for Best Supporting Actress, none more than once. 6 total wins in 88 years.
Those stats while alarming, don't mean much in the context of this discussion for me. It would be better to know what the ethnic composition of the Screen Actors Guild was, and then go from there. My guess is it may reflect similarly to the U.S. population, but maybe not. Is the NBA racist because nearly 75% of their players are African American? And using the aggregate of nominations for the Oscars is probably not a good measuring stick either considering roles for African American actors were few and far between for most of the Academy's existence. I think it goes without saying some great performances have been ignored, but off the top of my head I can't think of too many (more issues with Best Picture wins I think - especially with regard to Spike Lee's 'Do The Right Thing' losing to 'Driving Miss Daisy' in '89 I think). My guess is that Hollywood is in desperate need of catching up with the times. Moreover, what's lost in all this boycott talk is the roles studios play in promoting their films/actors for awards, something the Weinstein's are famous for. I think for both Creed and Straight Outta Compton there was very little Oscar buzz before their release (honestly, if you knew there was going to be a Rocky spin-off, would you be thinking 'I need to see this because it will be relevant when the Oscars are announced!' - no) and they've been trying to play catch-up ever since Jordan and Mitchell are being mentioned as 'snubs'. In addition, most critics were not lauding either film as 'Best Picture' worthy, which, IMO, automatically means no Best Director nomination (though that's not always the case - I remember when The Prince of Tides was nominated for every single award save Best Director). Moreover, there have been quite a few films recently to showcase outstanding work by African Americans - 12 Years a Slave, Fruitville Station, Beasts of the Southern Wild, and The Help. And as bad as it is for African American actors, consider what it's like for Asians or other minorities. Has any Asian ever been nominated for an acting award?
I guess my point is the Academy is filled with lots of subjective people who are essentially recognizing and awarding 'performance as art.' Not everyone views art the same nor should they. The bigger issue here is with Hollywood and studio heads who do not make more opportunities available for minorities. My God, casting Emma Stone as HALF-HAWAIIAN HALF-CHINESE in the film Aloha should tell you everything you need to know about Hollywood's whitewashing issue.
I also found it interesting that Fresh Prince star Janet Hubert called out Will Smith and Jada Pinkett-Smith, who along with Spike Lee are the celebrity faces of this 'boycott', for their hypocrisy. My guess is that if Will Smith gets a nomination, no one says one word about 'diversity' or 'boycott':
In the video, you say that the calls to boycott the Academy Awards are “not that deep.” What do you mean by that?
We are not brain surgeons. We are not curing cancer. We are not finding the next cure for Alzheimer's. We are simply and merely entertainment. We take on and wear the masks of characters. That's what we're paid to do. Someone like Will Smith has not come up through the ranks like most actors, so for him to be complaining the most is the most ridiculous thing I have ever seen.
So you’re not saying diversity in Hollywood isn’t an issue?
We’re all complaining about diversity in Hollywood, but we’ve got to address the colorism within the black community of Hollywood first. I’m called “dark-skinned Aunt Viv.” [Reid] is called “light-skinned Aunt Viv.” The whole ridiculousness of black Hollywood — there is no black Hollywood. It’s every man for himself. We’ve got to address that first before we can start attacking someone else’s awards that were never designed for us.
The Oscars were never designed for us. There are actors who have never gotten an Oscar and have done amazing work. If you are waiting for an award of a little ... gold statue and that’s supposed to validate you, then you're not in this business for the right reasons. We do the work. It’s about the work. It’s about taking the pages of a script and bringing them to life. It ain’t that deep. We get paid a lot of money to do very little work.
