The Emmy Awards aired on Sunday night and was praised for its diverse lineup of hosts and presenters. But when it came to the list of award winners, there wasn’t much diversity displayed in the 12 main categories.
In a not too surprising move, only white actors won all 12 lead and supporting acting categories with shows like The Crown and Ted Lasso sweeping the award show, BuzzFeed reports.
While it took social media hashtags like #OscarsSoWhite to
bring more diversity to the Academy Awards, Sunday nights Emmy Awards show that there’s still a long way to go. It was the first time where performers of color made up 44% of the acting nominations for the Emmys, as noted by The Hollywood Reporter.Actresses MJ Rodriguez and Rosie Perez were within the 37.5% of Afro Latinas helping to make an increase in representation this year compared to the 2020 show. Rodgriguez would have made history as the first transgender performer to win a lead actress award. However, the award went to The Crown
‘s Olivia Colman.But despite their nominations, along with the likes of Bridgerton’s Regé-Jean Page, and the late Michael K. Williams for Lovecraft Country, they all went home empty-handed.
While there were historic
wins for the likes of Maya Rudolph, RuPaul, and Michaela Coel, there weren’t many victories for entertainers of color. As a result, many sounded off on Twitter about the Emmys missing the mark and dubbed the new #EmmysSoWhite hashtag.“The #Emmys really said representation but only the nominees. #EmmysSoWhite,” one Twitter user said.
“Attempting to increase diversity by having POC as host and 90% of the presenters, but only giving awards to white folks isn’t a great look for the #Emmys,” added someone else.
“The emmys, predictably, chose white comfort,” said writer Alex Jung.
““Emmys do this every year: Nominate a diverse selection of our faves, only to give them to the same white actors and/or stories,” one viewer said. “Middle-aged white folks in conflict or British period pieces will win over nuanced, multi-dimensional plots involving characters of color.”
Hopefully, the Emmy committee is taking notes from social media and viewers will get to see more diversity among the winners next year. It took a proposed boycott to get the Oscars to get it together. Maybe the Emmys might need that same energy.