Since 1929, the Academy Awards have been designed to celebrate and reward excellence in cinematic achievements. The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences have a voting membership to ensure that the chosen nominees are well-deserving of such an award. One convenient flaw that the Academy’s voting membership has had for 87 years is that its members are overwhelmingly white. So it should not be much of a surprise that every year, for 87 years, the nominees and winners of the Oscars have been overwhelmingly white as well.
However, as of 2016, those days are over. In the beginning of the year, when the Oscar nominees were announced, people of color refused to be silenced. The #OscarsSoWhite had dominated Twitter, and suddenly instead of swooning over the nominees, the conversation was flipped to everyone who was not nominated, which were mostly talented and deserving people of color. Of course the Academy was mortified that they had been accused of being racist, even though it was entirely true. The Academy has been discriminatory and non-inclusive since their creation, but as of a few days ago, all of that has changed.
The Academy has officially diversified their members, something that they have never done before. About 41% of the new inductees are non-white. Previously, only 8% of the Academy were people of color. As of a few days ago, that number has increased to 11%. Not a dramatic increase, but it is definitely a start. More women have been inducted into the Academy as well, with 46% of new inductees being female. Previously, only a quarter of the Academy had been made up of women. Currently, women make up 27% of the Academy. There are also 283 new international members, from 59 different countries: 71% of these new international members are people of color, and half of them are women. An estimated 41% of the writers are people of color, and 36% are women. In the production category, 27% of producers are people of color, and 54% are now made up of women. Directors of color now make up 45% of the directors in the Academy, and female directors now make up 58% of the directors in the Academy. They have also increased the age range in the Academy, with the youngest inductee being 24 years-old, and the oldest inductee being 91 years-old. Some of the new inductees include Idris Elba, Gabrielle Union, John Boyega, Anika Noni Rose, Michelle Rodriguez, Ice Cube, America Ferrera, Damon Wayans Jr., and Michael B. Jordan.
This is a major change in the Academy, and a win for people of color. Hopefully, the nominees will be just as diverse as the new Academy is. This accomplishment adds to the abundance of proof that change is not only closer than you think, but also in the palm of your hands. If the #OscarsSoWhite would not have taken over all forms of social media, would this diversified Academy have even happened? If #BlackLivesMatter did not become the biggest trending hashtag in the past two years, would steps to reform the police departments in this nation have been taken? Would celebrities be so eager to speak out if the movement was not already making headlines? Surely these occurrences would have happened eventually, but there is no telling how long that would have taken without people coming together online and using social media as a weapon. Adults can knock the internet age as much as it pleases them, but the truth remains: we are creating history and major social change by spreading awareness and forcing discussions that have been ignored for far too long. And we are doing this from our computers and smartphones. There is no telling what further changes are to come if we continue to use the internet as a weapon.
