In 2019, for example, Mahershala Ali won Best Supporting Actor for “Green Book,” a film chronicling the development of a friendship between a poor, uneducated white driver and his affluent Black pianist employer. Although they feature BIPOC/AAPI actors, these films confine them to subservient roles meant to elicit sympathy, pity, guilt, and shame from the white audiences they are catered towards. The Academy has historically rewarded white savior narratives featuring stereotypical and racialized performances of suffering without any regard for works that situate people of color in storylines that have not been filtered through a white lens.

This is not to say that films aligning with the cultural taste of the moment should not be nominated the Academy should, however, carefully examine whose cultural tastes are reflected in those films and how women and non-white, queer, and genderqueer people are depicted in them. If the incredible achievements and creativity of artists from marginalized backgrounds are left out, it won’t be able to achieve this goal. The Academy appears to prioritize stories of struggle over appreciably more varied stories as commendable and adequate representation.Ībove all, the purpose of the Oscars is to recognize and honor outstanding achievements in film. The Academy has a tendency to nominate films highlighting pain, trauma, and oppression, rather than joy, adventure, and love in underrepresented communities. It’s important to note that a commitment to diversity in nominations is not always enough. Yet, the announcement did not mitigate the extensive backlash received last year when the Academy released its #SoWhite and still predominantly male 2020 Oscar nominations, where only one actor of color and no female director was nominated. Responding to the viral clarion call, the Academy published an official statement in 2016 communicating its goal “to commit to doubling the number of women and diverse members of the Academy by 2020.” In June 2020, they announced encouraging news: “Academy Surpasses Goal to Double Number of Women and Underrepresented Ethnic/Racial Communities by 2020.”

In fact, in 2015, all 20 acting nominations were awarded to white actors for the first of two consecutive years, a fiasco that prompted April Reign to start the hashtag-turned-social justice campaign #OscarsSoWhite. If one word has best described the Academy Awards over the years, it is certainly not “diverse.”