The nominees for the 88th Annual Academy Awards have been released, and the Oscar goes to...a bunch of white people. Racial controversy was sparked when the Academy Awards nominated zero actors of color for the second year in a row. The conversation was initiated when host Chris Rock referred to the Oscars as the "White BET Awards" and Jada Pinkett Smith announced she was boycotting the Oscars for their lack of diversity . Other celebrities have added their voices, some joining Pinkett Smith in denouncing the Academy and some dismissing the issue as unimportant.
The main argument against the Oscar boycotting is the concept of talent versus race. As Michael Caine put it, "You can't vote for an actor because he's black." Now here's the real conundrum: Caine and Pinkett Smith are both right. We need more diversity in Oscar nominations AND you should nominate people based on merit, not race. Some argue no non-white actors delivered Oscar-worthy performances this year, but this is highly debatable. Caine himself praised Idris Elba's performance in "Beasts of No Nation," and many others contend actors of color delivered some fine performances this year.
One facet of the debate is the lack of diversity in the voting members of the Academy. The vast majority of those casting votes are, to put it bluntly, old white men. Currently, the Academy's voting members are 94 percent white, 77 percent male, and the median age is 62. With those numbers, it is not surprising votes could be skewed unfairly. With this problem in mind, the Academy has announced plans to diversify their voters by limiting voting term periods.
While addressing the diversity of the Academy itself is a positive step forward, this issue is much bigger than just the Oscars. Film roles, or roles of any kind, are still limited for people of color.
Let's look at some of the past black actors and actresses who have won or been nominated for acting awards at the Oscars. Most recently, Lupita Nyong'o won Best Supporting Actress for "12 Years a Slave." Past nominees/winners include Morgan Freeman in "Invictus," Jamie Foxx in "Ray," Viola Davis and Octavia Spencer in "The Help," and Jennifer Hudson in "Dreamgirls."
Notice the common theme? All of these roles could only have been played by a black person. All these actors are incredibly talented, and performed brilliantly while telling important and quality stories. Each one absolutely deserved their award or nomination. But these roles are also inherently racial. They are playing and being recognized for specifically "black" roles, compared to white actors whose characters are rarely defined by race. Of course this trend is not true of all roles or award winners, but it does illustrate the struggle for non-white actors to act in films that do not focus on race.
It's about access more than nominations. One of the most harmful assumptions, and one deeply ingrained in our culture, is the notion that white equals normal and colored equals an exotic "other." Hearkening back to the "one drop rule," even mixed-race people who are equally white and non-white are treated as racial outsiders. If a role specifies a race, a person of color could be cast with little consideration of talent. If a person is non-white but their racial background is vague, they may be cast in any manner of "ethnic" roles that do not actually correspond to their real race. And if a role does not specify race, it is assumed to be white when very few characters actually demand whiteness.
The fallacy in this situation is viewing race as an either/or situation rather than a spectrum. It's not as simple as you are white and normal or not white and defined by your race. This leads to yet another issue with the Oscars. The #OscarsSoWhite campaign focuses on black actors compared to white actors, but other racial minorities suffer even more. The Economist recently wrote an article arguing nominations for black actors roughly correspond with the overall size of the black population in America. They provide a chart, shown below, demonstrating their findings. Looking at the chart, it shows Asians and Latinos are missing nominations even more than Blacks. Clearly, something is wrong in the film industry. We know there are talented Asian and Latino actors, but they are not getting recognized or not receiving sufficient parts. This may be in part because even though we have fortunately abandoned the despicable practice of blackface, casting white actors in other racial roles is still quite common. In a disturbing parallel with the minstrel shows of old, redface and yellowface is still practiced today.
Some people suggest, instead of opting for colorblind casting, just ignoring race entirely in the casting process. Unfortunately the answer is not so simple. We must keep race in mind. Casting Matt Damon instead of Morgan Freeman as Mandela would be wrong, just as it would be bizarre if Will Smith played Steve Jobs instead of Michael Fassbender. But at the same time, race matters far less than we tend to think. National Theatre Live's recent production of "Hamlet" featured black actor Kobna Holdbrook-Smith as Laertes with white actors portraying Ophelia and Polonius. Perhaps it didn't make perfect sense biologically, but maybe Laertes was adopted or his mother was black. But guess what? It didn't matter, because "Hamlet" is not about genetics. "Hamlet" is about emotions and humanity, and Holdbrook-Smith played Laertes brilliantly, as did his counterparts.
There are no clear answers to this issue, but it is apparent the recent Oscar buzz is indicative of much larger issues. People of color need to be cast as individual people rather than pieces of their racial background. We should not hand out pity parts to people of color. We should not punish white actors. We should reward talent but allow everyone access to the roles that showcase that talent.
As a mixed-race actress, I do not want to be defined by my race. I do not want to resort to cheap racial stereotypes in order to get cast. I do not want to misrepresent other races because I am lumped into some amorphous "ethnic" category. I am just another person. I am an actor. I play people, not the color of my skin.
