Wherever we are, racial divides and tensions are bound to exist. Yet the contributions of several individuals, ranging from this Monday’s holiday namesake Martin Luther King Jr. to the lesser sung W.E.B Dubois, James Baldwin, Audre Lorde and Bayard Rustin, have helped make the world a more equal place. Despite this progress, we must recognize that achieving equality requires more than just superficial change.
Many news media sources have called 2014 “the most diverse year in the history of television.” Gina Rodriguez was the second Latina woman to win a Golden Globe Award and ABC’s comedy show “Black-ish” clenched the title of the most-watched new sitcom on the network. Dartmouth’s own Shonda Rhimes ’91 produced two successful TV shows led by strong, successful black women — “How to Get Away with Murder” and “Scandal.” However, this heartwarming news was soon overturned by the whitest Oscar nominations list in more than 25 years — which was coincidentally also released on Martin Luther King’s birthday.
Criticized on social media with the hashtag #Oscarsowhite, the Academy came under fire for failing to nominate a single person of color under any of the acting categories. “Selma,” a film praised by several critics, received only one major nomination for the awards show.
Awards may not carry meaning for some many people, but it’s disconcerting that such films, and their actors and crew members, were blatantly excluded at such an influential ceremony. A recent report in the Los Angeles Times states that 94 percent of the Academy voters are white, while less than two percent are black. Even less than two percent are Latino even less than two percent. Although the current serving president of the academy is a black woman, her influence seems limited in the overall decisions.
The hashtag movement might mislead people into believing that the Oscars has only ever been a white-dominated awards ceremony — this is not entirely the case. Halle Berry was the first Black woman to win the Oscar for best leading actress for her role in “Monster’s Ball” (2001), and more recently Lupita N’yongo won an Oscar for her role in “12 Years a Slave” (2013). However, in both productions, the women filled stereotypical roles — Berry an abusive mother, and N’yongo a slave. It could be that studios limit the number of roles in which to cast black women and black Americans, or — more problematically — that outdated racial views heavily influence the Academy in the nomination process.
Even beyond the film industry, racial relations in the United States need work. That #JeSuisCharlie has been donned by global celebrities on red carpets and hailed by millenials all over the world while #BlackLivesMatter has not received the same level of positive attention and endorsement beyond the black community shows how race and ethnocentrism keep certain issues out of the spotlight — thanks to the complacent and false view that the world is now a more equal place.
Many fall into the trap of thinking that the United States has moved into an era where racism has been “fixed” and no longer exists. The lived experiences of people of color — of the unarmed black men who are killed in the streets by police — say otherwise.
We need to avoid feeling self-congratulatory about the progress we have achieved so far. Martin Luther King’s vision, celebrated this past Monday, hasn’t been realized yet — it’s still incomplete, something that we must continually work toward.
