Are the Academy Awards racist?
After all, not one Black actor or actress was nominated this year – not even David Oyelowo who, according to most critics, did a stellar job of portraying Martin Luther King Jr. in “Selma”. Nor “Selma” itself, which did receive a nomination for best picture, but no nomination for its director, Ava DuVerny,*.
Well, just last year, the Best Picture award was given to “12 Years A Slave” and the Best Supporting Actress award went to Lupita Nyong\’o, also for “12 Years A Slave”. Also nominated were Chiwetel Ejiofor (Best Actor) and Steve McQueen (Best Director) – also for “12 Years a Slave” – and Barkhad Abdi (Best Supporting Actor) for “Captain Phillips”.
Did the same academy that made those nominations, and gave those awards do a 180 degree turnaround in the past year? Or is it just that, this year, no Black talent was deemed worthy of the nominations?
That\’s for you to decide, of course.
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*Originally I blogged that “Selma” did not receive a Best Picture nomination. It, of course, did. Sorry about that. But the shutout of actors and actresses was correct.
