It's not a race thing.

I hear this over and over again from many different people, and for a while I was saying it too. It seemed like everything was becoming more about race and I didn't understand why. I would think we were just making a bigger deal out of something and it wasn't necessary. Recently, the Oscar Nominations were released and while a lot of the nominations were expected, there were a few surprises. Just like in every award season there are always people who get snubbed, but what was surprising was the complete lack of nominations for people of color. This year offered some great performances like Will Smith in "Concussion" and Michael B. Jordan in "Creed," neither of which were nominated. This caused people like Jada Pinkett Smith, Spike Lee, and George Clooney to share their thoughts. So what was reason for the Oscar Nominations? Are the Oscars racist?

I think it come down to two main factors, the roles and the Academy. There needs to be more roles created for people of color. There are roles out there for minorities but they are few and many aren't serious. Most roles can be found in comedies, Tyler Perry movies, or in biographical films about minorities. Not many of these performances are what they call "Oscar-worthy" but that is not the actors' fault. They can only work with the roles they are given and if there aren't enough roles for minorities, then they are forced to play the roles meant for white actors. So if we create more roles for colored actors, then we will see more minorities being recognized for their work.

The second major factor of the nominations is the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. The Academy votes on every category for the Oscars so they get the blame when the nominations come out. I actually hate the term old, white people because it is only used to describe something super conservative. But, in this case, I'll use it to prove a point. Over the years the Academy has tried to change it's membership by adding younger members in an attempt to stay relevant. This has helped the Oscar nominated movies go from "what movie?" to "oh yeah, I heard about that one." But there is still a lot of room for improvement. This year's Academy only has two members who are minorities. So is the Academy racist? I don't think so. At least not blatantly.

I think this goes back to how most of the members grew up. Remember what I was saying about old, white people? I think subconsciously the members watch the performances and vote for who they think is "best" without realizing that they may be overlooking the actors because of race. Does this mean they should vote for these actors because they are minorities and it will look bad if they don't? No, that's wrong too. But they should be watching these films with more awareness. They should question why they did or didn't like a performance and give everyone a fair shot. I like to give everyone the benefit of the doubt and I would like to think these members are not purposefully being racist, but that doesn't excuse the fact that they overlooked some seriously talented people.

The Academy has already said how they are changing the way they accept members so hopefully we will see a more diverse Academy. But in the meantime we shouldn't boycott the Oscars. The people who were nominated still deserved to be nominated. It takes a lot of work to make a quality film and everyone from the wardrobe department to the director put in a lot of work. I think we've been saying "it's not a race thing" for so long that we just couldn't say it anymore. Change starts when we start talking about the issue. When we acknowledge the problem then we can finally do something about it.

It is a race thing. It's a human race thing. It's our thing.