In depressingly unsurprising news, The Academy has nominated a group of entirely white actors for this year's Oscars, garnering a tremendous amount of criticism and leading to the reemergence of #OscarsSoWhite on Twitter.
While there's no doubt that the white actors nominated are talented, there were plenty of women and men of color who had stand-out performances and simply weren't recognized (hello, Michael B. Jordan). It's becoming harder and harder to rationalize this trend instead of chalking it up to institutionalized racism, and even Academy president Cheryl Boone Isaacs has expressed her disappointment at the community she oversees.
"Of course I am disappointed, but this is not to take away the greatness (of the films nominated)," she told Deadline. "This has been a great year in film, it really has across the board. You are never going to know what is going to appear on the sheet of paper until you see it."
While Cheryl does vaguely sound like she's trying to put a positive PR spin on the issue, she also admitted that the Academy's diversification efforts are moving at a snail's pace: "We have got to speed it up."
Sure, but what is it exactly that's holding the Academy back? Surely, they watched the brilliant performances of Will Smith in Concussion and Idris Elba in Beasts Of No Nation, right? It's becoming increasingly difficult to understand why these talented actors were omitted when the rest of the world can see that they're delivering the strongest performances of their careers.
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