No. Last night two Academy Awards were awarded to black people in categories that had never had a minority recipient before.

A look at recipients over time shows a tendency for white male protestants to win disproportionately more.

Last night was the most diverse group of nominees, presenters and winners I have ever seen. I was pleased even though I might have chosen some other winners. Historically, there have been many,many more whites represented than other nationalities or races. I loved the inclusion of some Spanish speeches too.

Have there been as many black colonial presidents as there have been white ones?

This is becoming more & more prevalent, the Oscars get it thrown at them, along with the accusation that women are under represented too.
The fact is, awards are dished out to what the academy see as the best in their field in any given year, regardless of race or anything else.
Now, you could argue with their choices & would be right to on probably the majority of occasions, but that’s where it begins & ends, nothing to see here…moving right along.

The Academy Awards have been around since 1929, long before black people were fairly represented.
Hattie McDaniels was the first black person to win an Academy in 1939, and it was a long 24 years before the next black person won one (give you three guesses who it was!)

Since then, just looking at it on paper, it seems more fairly balanced., considering the percentage of black actors to white actors.

So obviously the awards have NOT been awarded to black actors / actresses as often as to white.

When appropriate, yes. Giving of awards just to be fair where skin color is concerned is racist.

@kritiper: If it’s disproportionate, then people think it’s racism.

@luigirovatti If so, they are mistaken. Their problem. Believing that something is racist doesn’t make it so.

@luigirovatti when you talk about disproportionate, you have to consider the % of actors who are white to the % of actors who are black.
To make it simple, let’s say you have 10 white actors and 2 black actors.
5 of the white actors get an award. That’s 50% of the white actors getting an award.
Now lets say one black actor gets an award, that is still 50% of the black actors getting an award, although one group got 5 awards and the other got 1.

Throw into the discussion mix the casting of white actors in roles of minority characters. Casting like Emma Stone playing a part Asian, Jenette Goldstein playing Vasquez in Alien.

@Dutchess_III: Are you saying that there are fewer black actors than white actors? And actors whose parents immigrated in the USA?

Well, your question only asked about ‘black” actors, no one else. But still, it’s a given that the majority of the actors will be white because the majority of the population in the US is white so far.
Here is a tally of actors from 2014.
73% were white
12.5% were black
5.3% were Asian
4.9% were Hispanic
4.2% other

Which is roughly in keeping with the population breakdown in the US. This site puts the population of whites at 61% and blacks at 12%.

I’m not sure why people think that the numbers of white and black people getting awards need to be equal otherwise it’s “racism”. Are the numbers of white and black people deserving of awards exactly the same? Are they different simply because there are more white people in the entertainment industry than black people?

And as usual, little to no mention of Hispanics and Asians.

@Dutchess_III: And if they decide to shoot the movie in other states?
@Demosthenes: I don’t remember all the races in the world. You anyway have little mentioned Native Americans.

What does shooting movies in other states have to do with any thing? That doesn’t even make any sense. All of the actors are not concentrated in one state. They fly them in from wherever in the world they are.

@Dutchess_III: I’m saying, depending on the state the film is shot, the director recruits actors not from Hollywood.

Or are you saying that Hollywood has ALL ethnicities, ALL religions, ALL cultures, represented on Hollywood?

Most actors don’t live in Hollywood @luigirovatti. Most movies are no longer shot in Hollywood, either. That is an amazingly outdated idea.

Twister, for example, was filmed just a few miles from here, in Oklahoma.

@luigirovatti That was not directed at you, but at the people who seem to only focus on black representation while ignoring others.

Also, if a movie is mostly shot in one state, the producers certainly don’t bring in actors only from that state. They pull from all over the world.