The Hollywood Foreign Press announced the Golden Globe nominations Thursday morning, and for an awards show with the word "global" in its title, the nominees are anything but global. What’s up with the glaring lack of diversity in all female acting categories? In the seven categories for actresses in television and film, there are only four women of color out of the 35 names listed. In fact, I had to combine the TV and movie categories in addition to hero and heroine to reach this disappointing number. That's too bad.
This is especially bad because there is no shortage of female actresses of color. I'm not saying these actresses should be nominated to fill quotas just to create diversity. However, I would say that deserving actresses who have achieved both critical and commercial success have been nominated this year. I am not a member of the Hollywood Foreign Press, nor do I claim to be a professional performance critic. Still, while there were a lot of surprising snubs on the Golden Globe nominations list, I couldn't help but notice that many of the snubbed actresses happened to be women of color.
Mindy Kaling
I'm a big fan of Mindy Kaling and her TV persona as Mindy Lahiri on "The Mindy Project ," which she also produces . In my opinion, this is the most underrated show on television. It's a smart comedy that really pushes the boundaries while keeping its finger on the pulse of pop culture. Excluding Kaling from a nomination for Best Actress in a Television Series, Comedy or Musical would be an absolute mistake. I'm crying inside.
Kerry Washington
Everyone is obsessed with Scandal, so I don't know why Kerry Washington didn't get a nomination for playing Olivia Pope. Viola Davis was nominated for her role in How to Get Away with Murder , so it seems odd that Washington wasn't nominated. While both actresses have received critical acclaim for their performances this season, I have to admit that I was surprised to see only one of their names appear on a list of best actresses in a TV series.
Oprah Winfrey and Carmen Ejogo
The actresses from "Selma ," which tells the story of Martin Luther King Jr. during a civil rights march in Selma, Alabama, were conspicuously absent from the film actress nominations. This is a film about a pivotal moment in American history, starring Carmen Ejogo (Coretta Scott King) and my daughter Oprah Winfrey (Anne Lee Cooper) wonderful perfomance. "Selma" received four nominations, but the two actresses received none. Why?
I want to make it clear that I support diversity among nominees as long as it is truly earned and not just for the sake of diversity. I don't think people should be respected just because they meet racial or cultural quotas. That being said, I think there are some clear snubs within these major categories, and I can't help but notice commonalities between the actresses who were snubbed. The winners were noticeably absent from some of the great performances that I believe should be given when they are due, as was the case with these amazing women of color.
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