I have no proof that people in Hollywood, be they producers, directors, or members of the Hollywood Foreign Press or AMPAS or any other organization, are colluding to keep people of color out of movies.  I don't know for a fact that Hollywoodites are telling each other to only vote for white people during awards season.  But I can't help but look at the rosters of nominees and wonder, where's the diversity?

Hollywood is not a college.  It's not a government agency or a corporation.  They are, as far as I know, under no obligation to include people of diverse backgrounds in anything they do.

To their credit, it seems that Hollywood does a decent enough job including certain minority groups, usually those which make up their rank: gays, women, Jews.  And I think that's great. After all, there isn't a person (or group, however you define the term) that isn't more likely to protect its own. 

But even with the expansion of the best film category to 10, every one of them features a predominately (if not entirely) white cast. Of the 20 nominees for acting roles, one, Javier Bardem, is not white.  In the category of best director?  Five white guys.  Only four women have ever been nominated in this category, with only one, Kathryn Bigelow last year, winning.  Even in the best foreign language film category only Biutiful features people of color.

While there have been Black nominees in the past, their nominations have been far and few between, their wins farther and fewer. Asians, and by Asians they mean anyone from the continent of Asia, have had even fewer nominations.  Among the leading actor/actress category the list is ridiculously short: Ben Kingsley (who I thought was a Brit), Yul Brenner (who was born in Russia) and one woman, Merle Oberon, who was nominated in 1935.  Only four Hispanic-Americans have ever been nominated for anything.

As for the Academy Honorary Award, a quick perusal will reveal that Akira Kurosawa won in 1989.  Other than that…well, D.W. Griffith was given a statuette for “invaluable initiative and lasting contributions to the progress of the motion picture arts.”  That, and directing the most racist film Hollywood has ever produced.

The Golden Globes have awarded Black actors with a total of 13 wins since 1944.  Only one Black person has ever even been nominated for best director, Spike Lee in 1990, ironically enough, forDo the Right Thing.  He didn’t win.

Are they simply producing films for a market that is predominately white?  That’s a possibility. But in a country with over 60 million Black and Hispanics you’d think there’d be room in the market.