Let me start off at first by saying that judging any form of art, cinema included, is a highly subjective endeavor. What may appeal to some critics and individuals, may well be intensely disliked by others. Unlike running a 100 meter dash or swimming a 100 meter freestyle, where the winners are without dispute clearly evident, the art of cinema is subject to scrutiny by its critics and fans. In addition, the nominations and winners of the cinematic pinnacle of excellence (Academy Awards) are determined by the voting panel chosen by the Academy itself.
You may think that this voting panel has the ability to improve the diversity of the Oscar winners and nominees. However, they are bound to select the best out of the available pool of performances and movies for any given year. There's no dispute that the diversity of the panel is important, but it is also important to consider the variety of performances and stories that are being considered for the awards. After all, voting diversely for the sake of diversity is wrong, because it will ultimately leave a deserving performance out of the running for the awards.
People this year will argue that there are certain movies featuring black actors that should have been nominated. In my subjective judgement, the movies Beasts of No Nation and Concussion deserved a better fate. But to be fair, a lot of movies featuring white actors also suffer the same fate at times. In addition, don't forget that Slumdog Millionaire and Life of Pi didn't feature any white actors, while being raging successes at the Academy Awards. There is no concrete formula that leads from a performance to the receipt of the Oscar statue. But there is strength in numbers. And the numbers throughout the Academy Awards illustrious history tell us that there are very few African American movies or movies featuring African American actors and actresses that get any love at all from this organization.
The key is diversity. Not in forcing the Academy to nominate African American actors for the sake of it, but in planting the seeds of diversity across the board so that there is a larger and more accepted selection of diverse performances to choose from.
1) Offer the scripts with the highest chances for success to a diverse group of actors, producers and directors. This step is aimed at achieving a greater degree of diversity in terms of quality position in the entertainment landscape.
2) Improve the diversity of the voting panel at the Academy. Since all performing arts judgement is subjective, those judging should represent the diversity of those being judged.
3) Promote the creation of original story lines for diverse groups. Let's face it - a lot of story lines on the Oscar docket this year were written for white actors and actresses (whether historically or fictitiously). The only way to achieve fairness with this respect is to have original quality story lines that are well written for African-American, Hispanic, Asian, and other minority groups.
