The Unfair Slight Toward Blacks In Award Shows

As heartbreaking as Beyoncé’s Grammy snub was, it was, sadly, completely expected. For years, artists of color have been the recipients of slights in the entertainment industry, especially when their contributions are related to controversial issues such as race or sexuality, and are polemic in nature.  

Just last year, Kendrick Lamar, after receiving 11 nominations for his album To Pimp A Butterfly, a deeply moving and socially conscious piece, lost to Taylor Swift in the album of the year category for her album 1989. When one album is juxtaposed with the other, it’s very clear that the Grammy’s just went with the more marketable, “safer” album.

Another instance was in 1990 with what many call one of the biggest snubs of the history of the Academy Awards. Spike Lee’s culturally significant piece Do the Right Thing, which focuses on racial issues boiling over in a Brooklyn neighborhood, was looked over for Driving Miss Daisy, another racial piece but with a much more idealistically amicable ending.

Do the Right Thing, a film that unequivocally still strongly resonates with modern-day society, didn’t receive the accolades it deserved, and Beyoncé’s Lemonade album has unfortunately joined the ranks.

The album was an intimate portrayal of a black woman dealing with the turbulent emotions evoked by the betrayal of her partner. The visual album was groundbreaking in itself with poignant and powerful imagery, heavily symbolic and filled with allusions to race, sadness, betrayal and female, more specifically, black female power.

Its inclusion of the mothers of victims of police brutality such as Trayvon Martin was meant as recognition of the pain and plight of the black community concerning police violence.  

The album as a whole was deeply moving and so important to our community. The world literally stopped when Beyoncé dropped that album. Yet it didn’t win. Adele’s almost two-year-old album 25 won instead, a win that even Adele felt was unfair.

“But I can’t possibly accept this award,” Adele tearfully stated during her acceptance speech. “And I’m very humbled and grateful and gracious but the artist of my life is Beyoncé. And this album for me, the Lemonade album, was so monumental and so well thought out and so beautiful and soul bearing.”  

This year’s Academy Award was highlighted with the groundbreaking best picture win for the movie Moonlight, in a fairytale-esque twist where the wrong winner had been mistakenly called.

The win for this all-black cast, LGBTQ film has left many asking if this will be a whole new chapter for minorities in the entertainment industry. Many are too cynical to hope after years of disillusionment, but it is a nice possibility.