11 May Infographic – Is diversity in the Oscars on the increase or in decline?
https://infogr.am/diversity_in_the_oscars-36
Has diversity in the Oscars improved?
One subject that has been raised time and time again throughout the years is the lack of diversity in the Oscar nominations. Many believe that there is a clear lack of nominations for black actors. Following the 2016 Oscars, where there were no black nominees for the second consecutive year, the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences published a statement stating efforts to diversify the Academy’s ranks are “not coming as fast as we would like”. My infographic looks clearly and simply at exactly how many black actor nominees there have been since the Oscars founding in 1927 and whether diversity has progressed or declined.
As you can see from the graph, there were just two black actors nominated for an award from the Oscars first year in 1928 and right through the 30s. There is no change during the 1940s, again with just two black actors being nominated. From here on however, things steadily improve, with the number jumping to 12 in the 50s, but then declining again to 8 in both the 60s and 70s. Notably, it wasn’t until 1964 that Sidney Poitier became the first black male to win an award. It is only from the 80s onwards that we see any real sign of significant increase, particularly at the turn of the new millennium, where there were a total of 41 black actors nominated for awards from 2000-2015. Amongst those who won awards were Halle Berry in 2002, where she became the first black woman to win an Oscar since Hattie McDaniel way back in 1940, as well as Denzil Washington who became the first black actor to win two awards in 1990 and 2002. Others include the likes of Jamie Fox and Morgan Freeman (2005) and Jennifer Hudson (2007). Both 2015/16 saw no black actors nominated for awards which re ignited the debate that not enough is being done to make the Oscars a more diverse event. 2017 however saw two black female actors win awards for the first time.
In it’s 89 year history, only 16 black actors have won awards. The number is disturbingly low and as you can see from the graph, although there has been a relatively steady increase in the number of nominations for black actors, particularly in the past twenty years or so, the number is still minor in contrast with the number of nominations for white actors. To conclude, albeit on a small scale, diversity in the Oscars has steadily improved over the past 89 years, but there is still a lot of work to be done to ensure diversity and equality plays a bigger part in the Oscars.
