By Sarah Chawla, Courier Staff Reporter
After last year’s Oscars sparked controversy over the lack of 
diversity, this year’s has come out with the most diverse assortment of nominees this year.
For the past two consecutive years, the Oscars have not nominated a single person of color, which is nothing new. From the six year period from 1975 to 1981, only white actors were nominated. Over the years, the diversity was slowly increasing up until 2015. The recent lack of diversity has led some actors, including Will and Jada Pinkett Smith, to consider boycotting the Oscars. Others responded by trending #OscarsSoWhite on Twitter.
After last year, the Academy president, Cheryl Boone Isaacs expressed her discontent over the lack of diversity and noted that they need to speed up their efforts to diversify the pool. While the group of voters remains predominantly white and male, Isaacs added new voters, including many women and people of color in hopes to see more nominations of people of color.
Her efforts might seem successful, since Viola Davis is the first black actress to receive three Oscar nominations. She is nominated in the Best Supporting Actress category for her role in Fences. She was previously recognized for her roles in Doubt in 2009 and The Help in 2012. Additionally, for the first time in the show’s history, there is at least one person of color in each acting category this year, with Denzel Washington, Ruth Negga, Mahershala Ali, Dev Patel, Viola Davis, Naomie Harris, and Octavia Spencer. With Arrival, Bradford Young became the second black cinematographer to receive a nomination. Moonlight made Joi McMillon the first black female to be nominated for best documentary feature.
While many people are celebrating the change, others believe that the academy nominated black actors just to avoid criticism. Jeetendr Sehdev, a celebrity branding expert and Professor of Marketing at the University of Southern California, believes the academy has “‘missed the point of diversity complaints”. He explains how other minorities are still underrepresented and how it seems as if the Academy nominated small indie films like Moonlight to break the pattern.
Furthermore, Octavia Spencer, who is nominated this year for best supporting actor in Hidden Figures, explains how she doesn’t “feel there’s a lot of diversity. There’s black and white”. She explains how “there are a lot more people of color than African Americans. … There’s so much more to diversity than being black or white”.
The creator of #OscarsSoWhite on Twitter, April Reign, agrees. She’s “still waiting for films that reflect the Latin experience, for a romantic comedy with two LGBTQ members, for a disabled or differently-abled superhero”. Reign believes that while this is a step in the right direction, there’s still work to be done.