Sunday, January 31, 2016

THE SAG/AFTRA AWARDS AND DIVERSITY

So, first of all I'm proud of my union because, of the ten individual acting awards given out last night at the awards dinner, five went to black actors and five to white actors. And though some I voted for didn't win, all the winners were deserving.

The above reality raises some questions though. The lack of skin color diversity in the Oscar nominations created a lot of furor on the Internet about Hollywood's failure to represent the diversity of the country adequately. But the SAG/AFTRA awards give the lie to that generalization and seem to me to be a warning about generalizations in general.

On the same day of the SAG/AFTRA Awards, at the Sundance Awards the new BIRTH OF A NATION won top honors for it's black creator and star who referenced the SAG controversy in accepting the top award for his film about the Nat Turner slave rebellion.

The Oscar acting nominations certainly don't reflect the diversity of our country's populace (and never have for that matter) in more ways than just "black" and "white" (as I've posted before, i.e. the lack of nominations for Native American actors (see THE REVENANT) and Asian-Americans etc.).

But the fact that fifty percent of the individual acting awards for SAG/AFTRA were for black actors, a much higher percentage than would realistically reflect the racial (so-called) make up of the USA, makes clear that "Hollywood" is producing some great product for and with black talent that is getting recognition even if not in the acting categories at this year's Oscars.

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