Least Diverse Oscars Produced Most Statements On Diversity

Ava DuVernay deserved a Best Director nod for "Selma."

One of the least diverse Oscar ceremonies produced what is perhaps the most amount of statements about diversity.

"We're here to honor the best and the whitest," host Neil Patrick Harris quipped in the number that opened last night's Oscar telecast.

Much has been made about the fact that this year's list of nominees is the least diverse since the late '90s. But interestingly enough, several winners made statements about diversity.

Best Song winners John Legend and Common spoke eloquently about the mass incarceration of African-American males and the struggle for freedom around the world, Best Supporting Actress Patricia Arquette commented on the need for women's pay equity, and Best Director winner Alejandro González Iñárritu, who is Mexican, spoke about the importance of treating immigrants with respect.

While these comments garnered much-deserved applause, they did not eliminate the need for more diversity in the nomination process. It's not only that people of color are seldom nominated. It's that when they are nominated, it's often for roles that reinforce stereotypes. There are very few Oscar-nominated movies that show people of color in our full, three-dimensional complexity.

The backlash over the relative snub of the historical epic "Selma" is encouraging in the sense that at least a lot of people recognize that this excellent movie deserved more than its only two nominations for Best Picture and Best Song. Director Ava DuVernay absolutely deserved to make history as the first African-American woman nominated for Best Director.

And while David Oyelowo and Carmen Ejogo certainly should have been nominated for their dignified, nuanced portrayals of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Coretta Scott King, there are many other talented actors of color who were overlooked this year.

Why wasn't Oscar Isaac nominated for Best Actor for "A Most Violent Year"? If ever there was a positive portrayal of a Hispanic male, this is it. In his lead role as the owner of a fuel company battling rival suppliers, the Guatemalan-Cuban actor exudes strength, integrity and loyalty to his family and his employees.

Oscar Isaac was overlooked for Best Actor.

In fact, Isaac's character in "A Most Violent Year" is almost one-dimensional in how straight-laced his character is: an ethical businessman, a devoted family man, a bilingual Latino who embraces his roots yet is so patriotic that he chastises one of his Latino employees to speak English.

There are very few movies in which a Hispanic actor whose nickname isn't "J.Lo" carries a movie, and Isaac does it brilliantly. He brings to mind a young Al Pacino or Andy Garcia - and yet, he was also snubbed by the Academy.

Will African Americans, Hispanics and other people of color ever get to the place where we can be recognized for stories that don't deal with racial issues or crime?

"Tonight... we celebrate the power of film as a universal language that connects and unites the human spirit," said Academy President Cheryl Boone Isaacs, who, ironically, is an African-American woman.

This is an ideal to keep aspiring to.