Diversify

So, last Sunday’s Oscars happened.  There was much questioning in advance of how Chris Rock would address the #OscarsSoWhite controversies.  Some felt he should drop out.  Some felt he should use the the night to stick it to Hollywood racism.  And, he did pretty good.  Rock had some good jokes that called out the racism at play…Hollywood’s “Sorority style Racism” as Rock noted.  But Rock’s bits could have been better.

It started to become apparent that Rock’s calls to diversity were somewhat single dimensional.  In fact people on twitter started noting that Diversity is a bit bigger than Rock’s focus.  Aasif Mandvi tweeted:

hey #Oscars, diversity is not just #black and #white.

He was met with a response that stated that because Chris Rock is black, he was focusing on black performers.  Which, to be frank, is a pretty bullshit excuse.  Rock was hosting the Oscars to a broader public.  Asians and Latinos (just to name two groups left out) had every right to be frustrated by Rock’s extraordinarily narrow observations.

In a bit of irony, Rock’s race themed bits all highlighted white versus black.  He only spoke of black actors vs white actors.  There was a distinct lack of diversity.  Heck, it even looked as if he  and his writers lifted the Martian Gag from the Nightly Show.*

All of Rock’s bits would have been funnier with an expanded racial scope.  Of course, pointing this out has gotten some hit with accusations of saying the same thing as “All Lives Matter”.  Which is absolutely false.  Let me cut folks off at the pass.  This is false.  Period.  There is no discussion to be had.  Pointing out that other races were not recognized by Rock is not the equivalent of saying all lives matter.  Why don’t we look at some facts  about Oscar Diversity.  It is not a pretty picture.

There has not been an Asian Best Actor nomination since Ben Kingsly in 2003.  There has not been an Asian Winner since 1982, which was also Ben Kingsly.  It was 26 years earlier that there was another Asian nominated.  That was Yul Brenner in 1956.  And he won.  You have two Asian winners in the Best Actor category.  There was one Asian woman nominated for Best Actress.  Merle Oberon in 1935. Not a single Asian Actress has been nominated since.  Not even from the Joy Luck Club, which got no nominations for it’s actors.

Surely it is better for the supporting roles, right?  Between 1957 and now?  Best Supporting actor has nominated Asian Actors six times.  Of those six?  Two are Ben Kingsly.  The only win was Haing S. Ngor for the Killing Fields in 1984.  The last nomination was Ken Watanabe in 2003.

Supporting Actress?  Since 1957? Again, six.  The last being Hailee Standfield in 2010’s True Grit.  Only one win, that was to Miyoshi Umeki in 1957.

So, what about Latinos?  Surely, they fared way better in acting nominations and wins, right?

Well, for best actor?  Five since 1950.  Last nomination was Demián Bichir in 2011.  Last win? 1950’s José Ferrer for Cyrano de Bergerac.  For supporting role, there six nominations. One was for José Ferrer in 1948.  Anthony Quinn was nominated and won twice.  Andy Garcia and the other two went to Benicio del Toro, who won in 2000 for Traffic.

Best Actress had three nominations between 1998 and 2004.  That is all, no wins.  Just three nominations in the history of the Oscars.  Supporting Actress?  Six nominations between 1954 and 2013.  And I bet that 2013 nomination would catch people off guard, because it is Lupita Nyong’o.  She and Rita Moreno are the only wins.

Native Americans have three nominations in the history of the Oscars.  Three.

While looking for that last one I found this article which sums all the information up nicely.

Chris Rock focused heavily on the lack of Black actors.  Since 1958, there has been 18 nominations.  This includes Will Smith (Twice), by the way.    Morgan Freeman was nominated three times.  Denzel Washington four times.  There have been four wins (Sidney Poitier, Washington, Jamie Fox and Forrest Whitaker).  Best actress has only had ten nominations since 1954 and only a single win (Halle Berry for Monster’s Ball in 2001).

Best supporting actor has seen sixteen nominations and four wins since 1969.  The wins were Louis Gossett Jr., Denzel Washington, Cuba Gooding Jr and Morgan Freeman.  Best supporting actress?  Eighteen nominations with six wins (Hattie McDaniel, Whoopie Goldberg, Jennifer Hudson, Mo’Nique, Octavia Spencer and Lupita Nyong’o) between 1939 and 2013.

Going by the actual numbers, those individuals who were telling Asians, Native Americans, Latinos and other minority groups to just accept that they were being ignored?  They have the bigger gripe.  Asians, Latinos, Native American performances are far less recognized.  In comparison, black performers are getting more of the opportunities.

Hollywood needs more diversity.  Hollywood needs to expand it’s recognition.  But Rock made his bits all about black actors, every single bit featured only black actors (or in one case Black “Man on the Street” interviewees), and Rock gave no recognition to the lack of diversity other races (who have had even less recognition in Oscar History).  But he did manage a racist Asian joke.  Way to go with the appeal to diversity.

*The Nightly show did the “What if Mark Watney Was Black” gag a few weeks back.  It is entirely possible that the Oscar version was recorded in “competition” and it was coincidence…but it was the exact same joke, just the Oscar version got the original white actors.