“12 Years” only proves that Hollywood is a slave to business as usual [Quartz]

The Oscar ceremony is always a bittersweet event in my household, and this year was no exception. I like to think of the Academy Awards as a reflection of the beauty of art and a testament to the power of story telling. Yet by the end of the night, I always end the night angry over Hollywood’s challenges in depicting race and ethnicity. This year was no different, though host Ellen DeGeneres beat me to the punch in the first few minutes of the show: If 12 Years a Slave doesn’t win, she said, “you’re all racists.”

At the outset, I must say I was cheering for 12 Years. My eyes teared during Lupita Nyong’o’s win for supporting actress as the melancholic, tortured Patsy. Under Steve McQueen’s steady editing hand, this year’s best picture was a beautiful, powerful film with its subtle yet terrifying portrait of America’s “original sin.” But the Academy’s choice doesn’t mollify my overall ambivalence about the coveted award when it comes to African American narratives; in fact, it only reinforces my desire to see change.

Here’s why: On the rare occasions that the Academy manages to nominate films that depict an aspect of the black experience in this category, like this year’s 12 Years A Slave, they all too often fall into tropes that have been in existence since the beginning of the motion picture industry—the African American as “trapped” seems to be the theme of choice as of late. Virtually all of the best picture nominees in the past few years, more often than not, portray African Americans as perpetually trapped, confined, and beholden to a world dominated and ruled by whites, no matter how much individual agency these characters have. It’s a ghettoization of blacks, without having to show the actual “ghetto.”

The Oscar ceremony is always a bittersweet event in my household, and this year was no exception. I like to think of the Academy Awards as a reflection of the beauty of art and a testament to the power of story telling. Yet by the end of the night, I always end the night angry over Hollywood’s challenges in depicting race and ethnicity. This year was no different, though host Ellen DeGeneres beat me to the punch in the first few minutes of the show: If 12 Years a Slave doesn’t win, she said, “you’re all racists.”

At the outset, I must say I was cheering for 12 Years. My eyes teared during Lupita Nyong’o’s win for supporting actress as the melancholic, tortured Patsy. Under Steve McQueen’s steady editing hand, this year’s best picture was a beautiful, powerful film with its subtle yet terrifying portrait of America’s “original sin.” But the Academy’s choice doesn’t mollify my overall ambivalence about the coveted award when it comes to African American narratives; in fact, it only reinforces my desire to see change.

Here’s why: On the rare occasions that the Academy manages to nominate films that depict an aspect of the black experience in this category, like this year’s 12 Years A Slave, they all too often fall into tropes that have been in existence since the beginning of the motion picture industry—the African American as “trapped” seems to be the theme of choice as of late. Virtually all of the best picture nominees in the past few years, more often than not, portray African Americans as perpetually trapped, confined, and beholden to a world dominated and ruled by whites, no matter how much individual agency these characters have. It’s a ghettoization of blacks, without having to show the actual “ghetto.”

The Oscar ceremony is always a bittersweet event in my household, and this year was no exception. I like to think of the Academy Awards as a reflection of the beauty of art and a testament to the power of story telling. Yet by the end of the night, I always end the night angry over Hollywood’s challenges in depicting race and ethnicity. This year was no different, though host Ellen DeGeneres beat me to the punch in the first few minutes of the show: If 12 Years a Slave doesn’t win, she said, “you’re all racists.”

At the outset, I must say I was cheering for 12 Years. My eyes teared during Lupita Nyong’o’s win for supporting actress as the melancholic, tortured Patsy. Under Steve McQueen’s steady editing hand, this year’s best picture was a beautiful, powerful film with its subtle yet terrifying portrait of America’s “original sin.” But the Academy’s choice doesn’t mollify my overall ambivalence about the coveted award when it comes to African American narratives; in fact, it only reinforces my desire to see change.

Here’s why: On the rare occasions that the Academy manages to nominate films that depict an aspect of the black experience in this category, like this year’s 12 Years A Slave, they all too often fall into tropes that have been in existence since the beginning of the motion picture industry—the African American as “trapped” seems to be the theme of choice as of late. Virtually all of the best picture nominees in the past few years, more often than not, portray African Americans as perpetually trapped, confined, and beholden to a world dominated and ruled by whites, no matter how much individual agency these characters have. It’s a ghettoization of blacks, without having to show the actual “ghetto.”