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[Actress Priyanka Chopra (Photo Credit: Getty Images/Gregg DeGuire) and filmmaker Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy (Photo Credit: Getty Images/Dan MacMedan) at the 88th Academy Awards this past Sunday.]
#OscarsSoWhite? Yes, they are. But at the very least, this Sunday’s telecast of the 88th Academy Awards called out the awards’ flaws.
Unfortunately, the issue in Hollywood is so much greater than lack of diverse nominations at the Academy Awards.
From the first moment Chris Rock stepped onstage, the critique about the Academy and Hollywood’s inherent racism was called out. And, of course, this was bound to happen with a host as smart, biting, irreverent and honest as Rock. Rock’s first joke out the gate was to call the Oscars the “White People’s Choice Awards”—and it just got more real from there. The actor and comedian also addressed several subjects of the #OscarsSoWhite, including the polarizing debate over whether or not African American, and other actors of color, should boycott the Oscars in protest for the racism.
Rock correctly joked that people have waited so long to boycott and take a stand for diversity at the Oscars because in the past there have just been other, more important diversity and racism-related issue to tackle (actual racism, for one). But if people really want to see more diversity in the Oscar nominees, Rock joked that maybe we need diverse categories (though in reality, there really shouldn’t be any division in categories at all if you think about it).
The long and short of Rock’s opening monologue is this: Of course Hollywood is racist, but in a way that we’ve all “grown accustomed to.” And what these jokes about racism and lack of diversity tell us is that things really do need to change. The telecast’s acknowledgement of the problem—and having its diverse presenters and host to not only call attention to it, but also poke fun at the awards ceremony itself—is certainly a step in the right direction.
What also needs to be discussed is not just the lack of recognition for black actors who deserve nominations (because there is no reason why Idris Elba was not nominated for “Beasts of No Nation”), but the fact that other ethnicities like Asian, South Asian, and Hispanic men and women (among many others) are deserving of more recognition and more roles in TV and film. Unfortunately, while Rock did skewer the Oscars for their diversity issues when it comes to black actors, he also made a less than classy joke at the expense of Asians later on in the telecast, which undercut his poignancy regarding diversity.
Now, bringing up these critiques does not mean that there was a complete lack of diverse representation at the Oscars, even among winners. Pakistani filmmaker Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy won the Oscar for Best Documentary Short for her film “A Girl in the River: The Price of Forgiveness,” and British/Indian director Asif Kapadia’s full-length documentary “Amy,” about Amy Winehouse, took home an Oscar as well. Of course, Pixar’s animated short “Sanjay’s Super Team” was also nominated for an Oscar, though unfortunately, it did not win.
On that note, Rock was not the only person who took a stance about #OscarsSoWhite. During an Oscars red carpet interview with People, Priyanka Chopra talked about the controversy and stated the absolute truth about cinema: Art shouldn’t be defined by the color of skin.
Before the ceremony, Chopra and other stars like Mindy Kaling spoke about the diversity issue in Hollywood as well with a powerful piece in The New York Times.
“When I got hired on ‘The Office,’at the same time I wrote a pilot with my best friend, called ‘Mindy and Brenda,’ based on our experiences,” Kaling said. “They were trying to audition my part, which I wanted to play, and at first they [looked for] Indian-American actresses, and when they couldn’t find any, they opened up to more generically Middle Eastern actresses. Still couldn’t find any, until at the end, they’re like, ‘We’ll look for a white woman.’ That was heartbreaking for so many reasons. I auditioned. I think they were looking for someone more traditionally beautiful, because I’d like to think I gave a good audition, to play the part I created. Now, they would work harder to find an Indian-American girl. There’s just too much scrutiny, which is good.”
Kaling continued with a quote that truly describes South Asian working actors today.
“My role is not just artist. It’s also activist because of the way I look. On so many shows and movies, race was a gesture, and in mine it’s the premise. I can’t ignore that what a lot of people see is an Indian woman who doesn’t look like a Bollywood star. It piques their interest, and they’re not bad for wanting me to tell stories about it, and I’m not wrong for not wanting to. I want to fill my desire to write vibrant, flawed characters, but then also be a role model to young people. It’s stuff that I think about all the time. Some people don’t have to think about this at all.”
Chopra, on the other hand, talked about her experiences being a kind of role model for people of South Asian descent.
“I do feel extremely proud when I have people of the South Asian community coming up to me and saying, thankfully we’re seeing a non-stereotyped Indian,” Chopra said. “At an event, I remember this girl hugged me and started crying. She said, “Thank you for making us relevant.” It gives me goosebumps every time I think about it.”
So are the #OscarsSoWhite? Yes, and Academy President Cheryl Boone Isaacs knows it’s time to fix what is broken as stated in her speech on Sunday night: “Audiences are global and rich in diversity, and every facet of [the] industry should be as well.”
But what we should really take away and hope for the future of Hollywood is a quote from two-time Academy Award-winning director, Alejandro Gonzales Inarritu: “What a great opportunity to our generation to really liberate ourselves from all prejudice and, you know, this tribal thinking, and make sure for once and forever that the color of the skin become as irrelevant as the length of our hair.”
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