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Oscar Nominations: No Blacks, Or African-Americans, Nominated For Academy Awards

By Charisse Van Horn
Published on: 15:26 PST, Jan 14, 2016

The Oscar nominations were announced today and there were no blacks, or African-Americans, nominated for an Academy Award. The vast omission of blacks or even Hispanics has not gone unnoticed and people have taken to social media networks to voice outcry and outrage over what appears to be an apparent snub to people of color.

While the Academy Awards are set to be a time to celebrate the best in movies and cinematography, the fact that all of the Oscar nominations went to caucasians has upset many and put a damper over what should have been a joyous time. If you noticed that all of the Oscar nominees were white you may have thought that maybe other ethnicities hadn’t made any films in 2015.

That is hardly the case and what is disturbing is that films that focused on race or featured African-Americans may have been nominated, but only their white co-stars landed the nomination. This was not the case with the Golden Globes that honored several African-Americans, including giving previous Oscar-winner Denzel Washington the Cecil B. Demille award.

The internet is not holding back with their criticism of the all-white Oscar nominations. YouTube has seen a surge of videos from people voicing their outrage against the fact that no blacks or African Americans were nominated. Hispanic women are also voicing their opinion that not only are the Oscars seemingly racist, but also sexist. YouTube user Franziska Beck shared a song performed in pure Broadway fashion about how women of color are not nominated for Best Screenplay. Her song is called The Oscars are a Little Bit Racist and the hash tag #Oscarssowhite is also being used to express outrage over the all white nominees.

Wikipedia has a full listing of African-Americans nominated for an Oscar. While Wikipedia is not always the most trustworthy resource, the list of African-American Oscar nominees is accurate. When you see the full listing of blacks who were nominated for Oscars and won, compared to the amount of white or caucasians it is glaringly obvious that there is a huge discrepancy. Not only are more whites nominated and win when compared to people of color, but the omissions aren’t just during the early years of the Oscars, but have occurred in the most recent announcements for Oscar nominations.

When you look at the African-American nominees for best director, the results are staggering. In 1991, John Singleton was nominated for Boyz n the Hood. He was the first African-American to be nominated. The Oscars began in 1929. Now, consider that John Singleton was nominated for Boyz n the Hood in 1991, and another African-American director hadn’t been nominated again until 2009 when Lee Daniels was nominated for Precious. In 2013, Steve McQueen was nominated for 12 Years a Slave, and McQueen became the first African-American director to win for Best Picture. There have been three nominations for black people in the category of Best Director since 1929.

Dr. Boyce Watkins discussed the current views that the Oscars are racist on his television show.

The outrage against the Oscars and the Academy is so great, it’s sparking talk of a boycott.

What do you think about the Oscars? Do you think they are racist?

[Photo by Kevin Winter/Getty Images]

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