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Diversity at Awards: Why They’re Slow to Change

Year after year, the conversation around mainstream award shows is the same: Where is diversity?

Even in a record-setting year like 2023 — the year in which Beyoncé is by far the most awarded artist in Grammy history and has the most Asian nominations in a single year at the Oscars — questions about these programs’ commitment to equity persist.

Many have criticized this year’s Academy Awards – which take place on Sunday – for failing to recognize Black female talent. The Grammys dropped Beyoncé for the heralded Album of the Year award, instead giving the award to Harry Styles, in a move that astounded fans and critics alike. And at BAFTAS, which is essentially the UK’s Oscars, every winner this year has been white.

These mainstream awards are often coveted both for economic benefit and industry influence. But even as the public puts pressure on the entertainment industry to increase diversity, some argue that only incremental changes have been made.

Nancy Wang Yuen, sociologist and author of the book “Reel Inequality: Hollywood Actors and Racism,” said specifically about the Oscars: “We see more[change]because they don’t want to be criticized anymore.” . “But all the kinds of changes they’ve made are nominal.”

RECOGNIZED COLOR ARTISTS

One of the problems that mainstream awards face is simply how much harder it is for people of color to receive recognition.

The last time a woman of color won best actress at the Academy Awards was in 2002, when Halle Berry won for her role in “Monster’s Ball” and became the first black woman. receive this honor. In her acceptance speech, Berry dedicated her win to Black actresses past and present, as well as “every anonymous, faceless woman of color now has a chance because the door has been opened tonight.”

And that is not the case. Excluding this year’s nominees, only nine women of color have been nominated for the award since Berry’s win, and none have won. Meanwhile, other actresses, like Frances McDormand, have won the award twice in the same time period.

This year, Michelle Yeoh – one of the most famous actresses in the world – was nominated for the first Oscar in her life. And if she’s declared best actress on Sunday, she’ll make history as the first Asian to win in that category. It’s taken her decades to get the recognition of a nomination, and looking forward to her upcoming roles, Yuen points out that Yeoh has, for the most part, yet to play the lead role.

Duong Tu Quynh spoke out about the disparity that Asian actors face. During a roundtable in December, she talked about the difficulties older women face when taking on interesting roles, citing her own experience as an Asian woman.

“Honestly, I look at you all with envy because you got the chance to try out all the different roles,” Yeoh said at the time. “But we only get that chance once in a long time.”

Yuen said, if one of the most famous Asian actresses in the world is struggling, how are other actors of color even more difficult? She notes that what Berry and Yeoh face is proof of how flawed the system is.

“Even the awards themselves are not enough to overcome the structure of racism and sexism that women of color face in Hollywood,” Yuen said.

But barriers against people of color can be found throughout the entertainment industry — not just in movies.

Jasmine Henry, a professor of music at the University of Pennsylvania, uses Beyoncé as an example. Despite being one of the most awarded artists at the Grammys, her ratio of actual wins to nominations is actually less than that of other artists.

Although Beyoncé has won 32 times and received 88 nominations, Adele, for example, has won 16 times while being nominated only 25 times – giving Adele a higher win rate. Adele has also won Album of the Year twice, from three nominations, while Beyoncé has been nominated in the category four times and has never won.

“(The Grammy Awards) honor Black artists, but suffice it to say they honored them,” Henry said. “Not enough to really produce fair results.”

Many Black artists and artists of color fall into the R&B or rap music box, Henry said, thus limiting the categories they can be nominated for and win in.

Drake spoke out about this. In 2017, when his hit “Hotline Bling,” a song he sings mostly, won best rap song and best rap performance, Drake explicitly noted that the song was It’s not a rap song.

“The only category they could manage to match me was in the rap category,” Drake said in a post-award interview. “Maybe because I’ve rapped in the past, or because I’m black.”

WHITE ELECTRICAL ELECTRICAL ELECTRICAL LEADES UNCONSCIOUSLY

As to why these mainstream awards are slow to reward and recognize diverse talent, the answer often lies with the awarding bodies themselves.

These organizations are often legacy organizations, says Henry, meaning the people who have joined the system and the industry are the ones who have voting rights. For a long time, in many parts of the entertainment industry, that meant voters were often white men.

Today, most mainstream award shows are relatively secretive about who decides the nominees and winners for each category. However, many hypothesize that their voter demographics have barely changed.

Although the Recording Academy, which hosts the Grammys, has worked to increase minority representation in its classes recently, Henry said the organization is still believed to be predominantly male and Caucasian.

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences is no better. The Academy doesn’t publicly disclose demographic specifics about its voters, but a 2016 Los Angeles Times study found that 91% of voters are white and 76% are male. While the Academy has also attempted to increase diversity in its ranks by electing more women and people of color to its board, more recent estimates suggest that the organization is still comprised mostly of whites and males.

Film critic Robert Daniels explains: When the voting bodies are relatively homogeneous, it affects what and who they deem worthy of a nomination. Older white voters may be unconsciously drawn to stories they find relevant, which are not always the most diverse.

“Most say they vote for what they like, but of course we have to check why they like this,” says Daniels.

With more public push toward diversity at awards ceremonies, such as the 2015 #OscarsSoWhite campaign, many voters are probably also aware of the need for more diverse nominations, Daniels said. , and thus be able to nominate one or two people of color.

But one or two is still an incremental amount. The idea that most of the nominees, or even all of them, might be people of color, Daniels said, is not something most voters might consider. Instead, they can simply tick the diversity box with their nominations.

Studios will also spend the most money on films they believe have the best chance of earning nominations, Yuen said, which is inherently meant to satisfy voters’ tastes.

“People will spend a lot of money on Tom Cruise because they believe in him,” explains Yuen.

But for minority narratives, she said, that may not be the case.

THE ENTIRE ENTERTAINMENT INDUSTRY NEED CHANGE

However, award shows have made some headway in recognizing minority stories.

Until now, Asian actors in Asian-led films have never received Oscar recognition for individual performances, Yuen said — even when the films themselves received awards.

She cites 2008’s “Slumdog Millionaire,” “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon,” and 2019’s “Parasite,” all of which were nominated for Oscars in multiple categories, including best picture, but had no titles. nominate any actor to participate.

This year is different. “Everything Anywhere All At Once” was nominated for multiple categories and was favorites to win best picture. And the three main actors in the film — Tu Hy Vien, Ke Huy Quan and Duong Tu Quynh — were also nominated in the individual acting category.

“(The Oscars) are finally recognizing the Asian body, not just Asian stories,” said Yuen. “There are Asian actors, actors, and talent that are really embodying these roles and doing as well as any other actor normally nominated.”

The issue of representation isn’t just limited to award shows, says Daniels. The entire entertainment industry — including critics, associations and studios — also needs to change.

“We calculated this with #OscarsSoWhite and I think there was a problem… that we explained that only the Oscars are white like that,” he said. “Every level needs to become more diverse.”

He takes the Gotham Prize as an example. Daniels said the annual awards ceremony brings together independent filmmakers and has a small, diverse committee of nominees for each category, who watch the films that qualify and decide together the entries. nominations. The committee vote could also help improve diversity at other larger award shows, he said.

BAFTAs have incorporated this approach to several benefits. In an effort to increase diversity among nominees, BAFTAs completely overhauled their process in 2020. As a result, in 2021 and 2022, the majority of award nominees are selected. chosen by smaller juries, rather than based solely on the votes of members of the British Academy. . The BAFTAs have subsequently seen an increase in representation among the nominees – seen as a victory for the British Academy.

But this year, in 2023, the team withdrew some of those changes after criticism, deciding instead to split the nominations for each category equally between voters and judges — meaning both. each group selected the same number of nominations.

Nominees are still considered a diverse group. At this year’s awards, however, all of the winners were white, raising questions about whether the overhaul would actually lead to concrete change.

“We are seeing equal opportunities in some cases, but certainly not equal outcomes,” says Henry. “Sometimes we get stuck in this cycle of slight progress and sometimes back a little bit.”

For a lasting impact, Henry said the industry needs to work through superficial changes and work to rebalance structural issues and ingrained biases in the entertainment industry.

“By grappling with the issues of racism, sexism and homophobia in the industry, that means evaluating not only the categories and award systems, but also the companies that collect them. sound, the film industry, production operations and the entire industry,” she said. “It’s a scary ball of yarn to try and unravel.”

Until the industry makes bigger changes, its problems won’t change, says Henry.



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