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Oscars 2021: They’re Not #SoWhite Anymore, But They’re Still a Little Beige
It’s time to promote Black winners from the minors to the top categories.
This year’s 93rd annual Oscars — which were handed out April 25 in LA, with live feeds in London, Paris, and Sydney — will go down in history for a series of firsts.
Mia Neal and Jamika Wilson, the first two Black women to be nominated for the Best Makeup and Hairstyling Oscar, became the first Black women to win the award.
Minari’s Youn Yuh-jung became the first South Korean to win an acting Oscar and the first Asian woman to do so since Miyoshi Umeki, a Japanese-American, won Best Supporting Actress for Sayonara in 1957.
I haven’t checked my math, but this must be the first time three actors over 60 took acting awards in one year: The Father’s Anthony Hopkins, 83, Nomadland’s Frances McDormand, 63, and Youn, 73. So much for Oscar ageism.
I’m not sure if this is a first, but a month and change after winning the Song of the Year Grammy for “I Can’t Breathe,” H.E.R. won the Best Original Song Oscar for a different song, “Fight for You,” from Judas and the Black Messiah. H.E.R.’s win makes Diane Warren a record 12-time loser in the category.
