Whites, Camera, Action!

There has been talk recently concerning the diversity, or the lack thereof, in the nominations for the 88th annual Academy Awards. This is the second consecutive year in which the lack of diversity—and African Americans, to be specific—has been a concern of the public. What’s the deal?
Last year, it was more reasonable as to why there were not that many African Americans, to be more specific, nominated. The only big movie with an African-American leading actor or an African cast and director was Selma, a movie depicting Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and his struggle for civil rights. It is  a struggle that we seem to still be going through today. This year, on the other hand, there does not seem to be a valid excuse as to why there are not any minority nominations. There has been an extensive list of exceptional movies with African American lead roles that came out in 2015.
The 2015 dramatic sports film Creed was written and directed by Ryan Coogler, who just happens to be black, and starred Adonis Johnson, another black man. But alas, despite raving reviews from TIME, Rolling Stone, and other publications, the only one to get nominated from this film was a white man.
Director, F. Gray Gray, an African American man, had a booming, charismatic cast of young, new faces, who were all-black in the hit blockbuster Straight Outta Compton. This edgy, heartfelt movie told one of the least known but most intriguing rags-to-riches stories of all time. It truly made you want to laugh, cry, and straight up made you wanna yell “F**k the Police!” It reminded this generation’s group of African-Americans what we can do with the power of music. Ironically, the Academy did not seem to think so because the only ones to get nominated from Compton were the white writers. I mean kudos to them—they helped make an amazing film— but really Academy? Really? You completely overlook the almost all-black cast and black director? This is a movie that not only showed the public the emotional, tortured side of some of the toughest rappers, but also incorporated racial controversies that still exists, and are a problem to this day. No offense to Leonardo DiCaprio and the writers and directors of The Revenant but I am not so sure that a movie about mountain men and DiCaprio trudging through mud is Oscar-worthy.
Both Creed and Straight Outta Compton were just a punch in the face. They gave you a look into crude reality, but they also made you want to hug someone. That is not easy to find. Although there are not many films with a predominately minority cast, they were not hidden from the Academy’s view. Maybe the Academy voters just thought, “We get it; it’s hard being a minority, now stop complaining,” but what they do not understand is that these are the movies that keep us going. They remind minority groups what they/we have been through and that it does not matter if we are Anglo-Saxons. You just got to have dedication and heart. If the Academy, and all of the media industry, chooses to keep Hollywood white, we will just keep making movies that tell us where we come from, and what we have been through.