BlackPerspective.net
Discussing the Diaspora as seen through an internal Black lens
Black Representation and Winners at the SAG or Screen Actors Guild Awards
January 28th, 2008
I posted last week about the Oscar Awards routine disregard for Black Actors and films. Well the SAG Awards did a little bit better, at least this year.
The Great Debaters was shutout of even a nomination just the same for much of the same underline reason I think it was ignored by the academy; yet, overall there was more Black representation.
The following is a list of Black Actors nominated. I could have possibly missed 1 or 2 as I did not recognize every single name on the nominee list; especially in some of the ensemble cast.
QUEEN LATIFAH (twice)
RZA
Cuba Gooding Jr,
Ruby Dee (twice)
Denzel Washington
Vanessa Williams (twice)
Leslie David Barker
ISAIAH WASHINGTON
CHANDRA WILSON
Tracy Morgan
We have to note that 10 of those 13 nominations disappear if not for the ensemble cast category, which accounts for Denzel Washington’s, Cube Gooding’s, RZA’s and one of Ruby Dee’s nominations for a gangster movie; and also accounts for ISAIAH WASHINGTON, CHANDRA WILSON, Tracy Morgan, and one of both Vanessa William’s and Queen Latifia’s nominations as well.
Black Award Winners:
Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Supporting Role
RUBY DEE / Mama Lucas – American Gangster (Universal Pictures)
Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Television Movie or Miniseries
QUEEN LATIFAH / Ana – Life Support (HBO)
And Leslie David Barker won as part of the ensemble cast of The Office
At first I set out to do this post with the hypothesis that SAG Awards were giving Blacks Half Decent though yet under par recognition as opposed to the Oscars; but not really. As I’m writing this post, the analysis that I’m uncovering is arguing against my initial thought. The SAGs do movies and primetime television; and other than the ensemble cast, which is a category the Oscars doesn’t have, they both only nominated the same one Black person in the movies, Ruby Dee for American Gangster.
Two Black people were nominated for solo performances for the television part of the awards. This number may be more a reflection of the lack of Blacks in leading roles on television, and in that light, two might actually be a half decent number. There really aren’t that many Blacks in leading roles on t.v. Black themed dramas have gone the way of the Dodo, and white folks have never watched Black theme sitcoms much outside of The Cosby Show. To be honest, I wouldn’t hardly nominate the current crop of Black sitcoms for much of anything either. We’re not exactly getting Roc and A Different World right now. Though Everybody Hates Chris was cutting edge when it started but has grown kind of stale, and Girl Friends had some quality stuff in it’s earlier days.
There can be seen some forward movement in where there were a few Black people as part of nominated ensemble cast. I counted 5 nominated this year in that category, including Barker being part of the win for The Office. In the last decade here’s been a marked increase in Blacks being included in significant roles in majority white cast; but not at a satisfactory level yet.
Feel free to notify me of any Black folks I left out who were nominated or won.
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6 Responses to “Black Representation and Winners at the SAG or Screen Actors Guild Awards”
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Yobachi Boswell is creator and publisher of BlackPerspecitve.net. I’m a writer, activist and political watcher based in Nashville, Tennessee. I’ve also been know to do some spoken word and MCing in my day.
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Good Afternoon Yobachi,
Of all of the actor awards, the SAG seems to be slowly but surely improving over even the Oscars in terms of inclusiveness of Black actors. I believe that a lot of this comes from Black actors joining SAG and the actors having an opportunity to work together. In any instance, it’s good to see a mainstream recognition like this pay attention to Black actors.
Shelia, part of initial hypothesis was going to be to highlight the different voting systems between the SAGs and the Oscars. The Oscars are heavy loaded with old white people because I think you have to be former winner to be a voting member, and of course about 98 of the all time winners are white, and the majority old.
For the SAG awards you just have to be a paid up member of the guild; and in order to join the guild I think you just have to be an actor with a screen credit; which opens it up to way more diversity. But still the voting power clearly lies with white people as the strong majority; and it’s not as if young white people are just color blind and greatly engaged in Black culture.
The numbers shift from Oscar to SAG because of the inclusion of Network Television. Without that the SAG awards would resemble the Academy.
Last year there was word of the Black Oscar’s being canned because of the great stride that black people made in terms of winning over the years (i.e. Denzel, Halle) but it seems as though we should go back to recognizing our own.
I think there has been some movement in the Oscars and award giving world to be willing to vote for Black actors a little more, but it has to be a convergence of certain factors for when that happens.
Overall though, the respect is still not really there; especially when it comes to majority Black movies telling Black folks story.
I don’t get bent out of shape over Hollywood’s lack of love for Black people. Since Hollywood’s inception they’ve made it clear they don’t care about us. If we get more awards, fine. If we don’t, fine.
Our energy, time, talent and resources are best invested in creating an entertainment empire of our own. Waiting on white folks’ approval and validation is a misuse of our mental energy.
Peace & Blessings
Yes, and nowhere have I called for looking to white people for approval nor validation.
I highlight such things for the purpose of Blacks who don’t recognize the cultural manifestations of racism. If there is no identified problem of racism that calls for unidentified action, there’s no reason to have thought of “creating an entertainment empire of our own”.
Every post I make is not for the choir. The healthy don’t need the medicine.
Now maybe I could have added a statement of this is why we have to have and support our own, to drive the message further; but trust, my program has nothing to do with seeking white approval. I’m a Black nationalist. I think a review of this site well demonstrates that.