The Oscar Nominations Prove Hollywood Doesn’t Care About Diversity

The 92nd annual Oscar nominations are out! But don’t get too excited because once again — for the billionth time — the Latinx community got shut out completely. This year’s Acadamy Award nominations, which were just announced this morning, is beyond white. It’s so white, I think I am going blind from reading the list of nominees. But before we get into this completely tiring and infuriating topic, let’s get into the ridiculousness that occurred this morning. 

The Acadamy Awards clearly realized how white and male this year’s nominees were because they did allow two underrated minorities to present the nominations, actors Issa Rae and John Cho. The two named the nominees in the top Oscar categories and while we already knew it would be slim pickings for minorities, I didn’t realize it would be this bad. 

Goes to show you, that Hollywood LOVES talking a big game about diversity and inclusion, but these #OscarNoms do not reflect that.

— Dino-Ray (@DinoRay) January 13, 2020

Leading with the most nominations is a film about a white troubled man who likes to kill people. I realize that sounds like most films, but in this case, I am referring to Joker. The film scored 11 Oscar nominations including for best picture and best actor for Joaquin Phoenix. By now you’re probably wondering if Jennifer Lopez got nominated for her Oscar-worthy performance in Hustlers. She did not. In fact, the only woman of color that got nominated for an Oscar in a major category is the stellar Cynthia Erivo for her lead role in Harriet.

Director Greta Gerwig did not get nominated for her film Little Women even though her film was nominated for the best picture. Speaking of more enraging snubs, one of the most beloved films of the year The Farewell got shut out. The film’s director Lulu Wang did not get nominated nor did lead actress Awkwafina. Hustlers director Lorene Scafaria also got shut out, as did Marielle Heller for her film A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood. The best part about the best director announcement was hearing Rae say, “Congratulations to those men.”

The #OscarNoms are such a mess like how are the director noms just male?? JLo didn’t get nominated?? All the supporting actress noms are white women?? Only one PoC up for Best Actress?? The Farewell being snubbed like that?? Why am I even mad like this is surprising??

— Fatima (@fatimafarha_) January 13, 2020

We could get into the other nominations but what for? It’s the same old crap that we’ve been dealing with forever. What makes this whole Academy process even more of a disgrace is that we were promised better. White actors shouted from the rooftops that they would diversify Hollywood. That they wouldn’t accept projects without an inclusion rider. The definition of an inclusion rider or equity rider, as noted by The Guardian, “is a provision in an actor’s or filmmaker’s contract that provides for a certain level of diversity in casting and production staff.”

The term was first introduced in 2016 by Stacy L. Smith, professor at the USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism. In essence, if creatives demand an inclusion rider that means producers and executives would have to hire minorities or else their lead actors would walk away from the project. 

I’m committed to the Inclusion Rider. Who’s with me? https://t.co/yvQ0wR5D80

— Brie Larson (@brielarson) March 5, 2018

In 2018, actress Frances McDormand won an Oscar and ended her speech by saying, “I have two words to leave with you tonight, ladies and gentlemen: ‘inclusion rider.'” Since then, actors swore their contract would demand an inclusion rider. Now, here we are, two years later with less diversity than before. 

So with that, all you winners this year can take your Oscar speeches and shove it down your ass.