"Somehow all that progress seemed to halt immediately with the 2020 Oscars"
The 92nd Academy Awards have come and gone. All the posturing and red carpet arrivals won’t be back in full force until November at the earliest. And with it likely comes the staunch call for better representation among nominees.
This isn’t exactly a new narrative. In 2015, the #OscarsSoWhite hashtag went viral after a year that seemingly ignored quality performances both in front of and behind the camera. That was repeated in 2016 with another slate of all white acting nominees. The 2016 nominations might have been even more problematic as Sylvester Stallone was a Best Supporting Actor nominee for his role in Creed where he was one of the few white actors in an otherwise predominantly black film.
Premiere Of Warner Bros. Pictures' "Creed" - Red Carpet.
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Hoping to end the trend, the 2017 nominations and winners were far more diverse. Denzel Washington was a Best Actor nominee. Ruth Negga was a Best Actress nominee while Octavia Spencer and Naomie Harris were Best Supporting Actress nominees for the award Viola Davis won. It was the first time in Oscar history that black actresses had more than a 20% chance of winning the award. Mahershala Ali also won Best Supporting Actor that year.
"It seems odd for the Oscars to trot out so many black performers to honor their peers while failing to acknowledge their work."
Somehow all that progress seemed to halt immediately with the 2020 Oscars where one black performer — Cynthia Erivo was nominated for her starring role in Harriet. Erivo is compelling in the film about Harriet Tubman, but it keeps going back to a familiar trend of too many black actors being hailed by their peers for roles where they’re marginalized either as slaves (Lupita Nyong’o in 12 Years a Slave) or stuck in the civil rights era fighting a losing battle against racism (Ali for Green Book).
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(Left to right) Lupita Nyong’o, Mahershala Ali, Cynthia Erivo.
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At the show, Chris Rock joked that Erivo was asked by the Academy to hide all the black nominees before his co-presenter, Steve Martin, shouted out Eddie Murphy for his arguable career dramatic best turn in Dolemite Is My Name. Martin did mention some progress has been made as in 1929 there were no black actor nominations, right before Rock adds, “and now, in 2020, we got one”.
It’s the kind of thing that is funny, but it’s become too much of a recurring theme. Rock made similar remarks in 2016 when he was the Oscars host. Weird how little has changed.
ABC's Coverage Of The 92nd Annual Academy Awards - Show
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Expecting the Academy to make lasting changes is probably not going to happen as there’s little interest for the Academy to actually watch and consider films like Us, Queen & Slim,Waves or Dolemite Is My Name. So maybe in a show of silent protest, all the black actors and musical guests that are invited could politely decline? It seems odd for the Oscars to trot out so many black performers to honor their peers while failing to acknowledge their work. Maybe a literal #OscarsSoWhite show would force a different line of thinking?
It’s just a thought and something that as Quentin Tarantino phrased it can only happen Once Upon a Time in Hollywood.
