I remember the first time that
#EmmysSoWhite trended immediately after the 2021 Emmys. I couldn't understand
it then for two very good reasons.
The first was that in the prime-time
broadcast which had inspired it the Emmys had not, in fact, been all white.
Michaela Coel had made his when she became the first woman of color to win an
Emmy for writing a Limited Series I May Destroy You which is still
considered by many critics one of the best shows of the 2020s. Coel was in fact only the second
African-American woman in the history of the Emmys to win for writing behind
Lena Waithe who'd done in 2017.
It became clear almost immediately
that what caused the hashtag was the fact that no African-American actors had
won an Emmy. Except that wasn't true either. In the Creative Arts Emmys earlier
that month Courtney B. Vance had won Best Guest Actor in a Drama for Lovecraft
Country, the second Emmy he'd ever won.
So what #EmmysSoWhite really meant was
that no actors of color had won an Emmy in the primetime broadcast. In
hindsight this should have told me something about how the people on social
media, particularly on the left, truly see the world as a whole: if they didn't
see it and it didn't meet their very particular standards, they were going to
condemn it. (It would take me the next
few years to truly realize just how limited that scope was.)
It's not like I was completely unaware
of the Emmys horrible history when it came to giving awards to people of color.
Hell that hashtag could have applied far more easily to any Emmy broadcast from
the start of the 21st century up until 2013 and it would have been
far more realistic. This was, after all, the age of the White Male Antiheroes
and during the entire 2000s I could count the number of nominees of color
across the board on both hands and still have fingers left over. And it was a
lot easier to accuse the Emmy of racism in so many ways over that period –
shutting shows like The Wire out completely, the choice to give Best
Supporting Actress in a Drama not to Sandra Oh or Chandra Wilson but to their
white co-nominee Katherine Heigl. Indeed the first actress of color I can
recall winning an Emmy in drama during the 21st century was Archie
Panjabi in The Good Wife in 2010.
Every so often an actor of color would win Best Guest Actor or Actress
in Drama or Comedy, but since that usually happened in the Creative Arts Emmy
category it was easy to cast aspersions.
Primetime TV and cable were very
limited in the number of prominent roles for African-Americans and other actors
of color during the first decade of the 20th century and well into
the second. You'd have gotten no quibbles from me if they'd used it during that
period. So the fact that the hashtag only came in 2021 was telling because for
the five Emmys prior to that one it was always honoring anywhere from three to
four actors of color a broadcast. In
2020 they'd honored four of them: Regina King and Yayha Abdul-Mahteen for Watchmen,
Uzo Aduba for Mrs. America and Zendaya winning her first Emmy for Euphoria.
I didn't always agree with the winners over that period but I knew the
significance.
So the fact that #EmmysSoWhite only
started trending in 2021 seemed to mean only two things. Either the people who
were handling the hashtag had only started watching the Emmys in 2015 or
those online weren't counted all of the progress in the last six Emmys
ceremonies, only the one where their own standards weren't met.
So this year, when #EmmysSoWhite
started trending even before the broadcast was fully over I knew what this was
about. Viewers were upset that no performer of color had won an Emmy in the
primetime broadcast. I knew even if I were to argue that Ernest Harden Jr. had
done so for The Pitt in the Creative Arts Emmys as well as the fact Hiro
Murai had won for Best Directing in a Comedy (the first Asian-American to ever
accomplish that, not that anyone cared) it wasn't going to placate the online
mob.
There's a part of me that almost finds
this hashtag adorable. At least when it trended in 2021 we were in the
relatively liberal Biden Administration. Now in the midst of Trump 2.0 and all
of the problems the world and Hollywood was facing, the fact that so many
people were still concerned about representation at the Emmys seemed almost
quaint. The fact that for the second straight broadcast the Emmys had been
relatively apolitical (safe of course for Stephen Colbert's win) almost made me
wonder if this was an effort to start controversy for controversy's sake
because no one had taken the opportunity to speak for the people of Gaza or the
One Percent or told ICE to screw itself.
The reason that this hashtag trended
yet again is because it clarifies something I've always known about the way
both Hollywood and the online chatter is in regard to issues. It’s not just the
selective outrage or the way that they focus either on things that are
irrelevant or that it's not the job of Hollywood to change. It's that they are
increasing turning an awards show for television – which is so irrelevant in
the grand scale of problems with America, the world or even Hollywood overall –
into yet another thing that is more about checking boxes rather than something
that isn't about society or issues or even the problems in Hollywood. And on a purely basic level it gets to the lie
of the whole 'representation matters' and makes it clear that it only matters
about performers, full stop.
This is bad for many reasons. First of
all, it makes it clear just how much BS the whole idea of 'representation
matters' always was in Hollywood. It tells us that all of the people who are
responsible for a show – not just writers and directors, but cinematographers,
musicians, editors and all the people behind the scene – are utterly irrelevant
compared to those in front of the camera.
More than a few actors have openly implied as much over the years but
#EmmysSoWhite drives it home.
Put simply if Michaela Coel had won
for acting in 2021 but not writing I seriously doubt #EmmysSoWhite would
have trended at all even though the latter win was far more significant then
her winning for acting would have been. Regina King had won in that category
the previous year. And while it would have been significant had Salli
Richardson-Whitfield won for Directing by the time of that award it was already
irrelevant as the hashtag was trending again this year.
Second, it basically takes any
remaining argument that the Emmys should be about the quality of the
performance at all but rather some version of affirmative action. Now I would
have been thrilled if Sterling K. Brown or Janelle James or Charles Melton had
won Emmys earlier this but that was because of their excellence of their
performance. #EmmysSoWhite reverse the idea: it says they deserve to win not
because of the quality of their performances but the color of their skins. And
if you think this sounds racist remember the hashtag has the word 'white' in
it, not #EmmysNeedColor or something similar.
Related to this is how it basically
reverses what the Emmys and awards shows should be about. The hashtag makes the
Emmys not about honoring the best performances
but an institution that slights people of color. And if that's true then
the Emmys can't even honor people like Quinta Brunson or Jessica Williams
because the awards aren't about them even when they win them but makes them
symbols of some great struggle. Their victories aren't about them and their
defeats are symptomatic of institutional racism. It can't reward them for their accomplishment;
it can only argue their failures are part of a bigger societal system.
The final reason is the most important.
The Emmys is just an awards show. No matter how much Hollywood wants to try and
argue its political significance in America and the world at large it's irrelevant
in the grand scheme of things or even in the smaller schemes of television. A
win for Tyler James Willliams at the Emmys will not stop conservative
politicians trying to roll back DEI programs; Liza Colon-Zayas' victory for The
Bear did not do anything lead to immigration reform; and a victory
for Niecy Nash-Betts did nothing for African-Americans, women or gays and lesbian
rights in America. The best you can say these wins might do is lead to more
roles for all of these minorities in Hollywood down the road. For all those who
are of these minorities but have neither the means nor desire to work in the
industry, it's meaningless. Racial parity
in the Emmys did nothing to help Americans during Trump's first term or Biden's
term and the only people who might think it would are in Hollywood themselves,
which means their perception of what is important is skewed by their status.
Now as someone who has spent the last
decade studying the Emmys with a fascination where some might question might
sanity, I do recognize the significance of when the Emmy makes history when it
comes to minorities and will applaud it when it happens. But I've never for a
moment thought that the Emmys are going to change the world when the actual
awards have been dropping steadily in ratings basically my entire life. What happens in the Emmys is cared about by a
relative few and its significance basically ends within hours of the broadcast
itself.
Theoretically like all entertainment
the Emmy broadcast is supposed to provide a brief respite from everyday life,
not reflect society ills or be used as an instrument for social change. It's just
a TV show. And considering that it's supposed to be recognizing the best
performances and shows of the year, the argument that is specious.
It's not like there aren't a lot of
awards show for recognizing the best among minority group – the Image Awards,
Alma and GLAAD among many others, have their own recognition for identity
politics in that sort - and in some
cases they actually do a better job recognized important shows and actors then
the Emmys. Taken to its natural extent you almost wonder if the Emmys is
supposed to have categories for Best African-American in acting, Best LatinX in
acting, etc. (As always those are the
only categories #EmmysSoWhite is covering, every other award can just be one
big happy melting pot.)
I have to point out that there's a
similar lack of focus when it comes to gender neutral awards. No one seems to
have a problem with Salli-Richardson Whitfield being nominated twice in the
directing category for television or that Katie Dippold had to compete against
men and women when she won for Best Writing in a Comedy. And I have heard a
single non-binary writer or director complain about submitted in those categories
at the Emmys. No it's only Asia Kate Dillon and Liv Hewson who seem upset about
Hollywood not having a place for them, though Bella Ramsey has made it very
clear they have no problem competing for Best Actress in a Drama because
"I respect women." I'll bet that made them popular in their circle.
Am I making much ado about nothing? So's
#EmmysSoWhite which is my point in the first place. If a shiny gold statue can't
fill the broken place in the soul of a millionaire who feels guilty that they
didn't become a doctor or a lawyer, how can it possibly solve the issues of
systemic racism? (By the way, whoever
hosts the Emmys next year, there's a one-liner free of charge.)
Anyway now that the Emmys is over
Hollywood can get back to using its platforms to do absolutely nothing to solve
the problems in America or the world while in their free time producing
television shows that every so often have the power to help us forget, even for
a moment, how bleak the world can be. I wish they'd spend more time doing that
then everything else but I know that's not the world we live in.
My sincere congratulations yet again
to all of the winners this year. Don't believe the hashtag; all of you did deserve
to win. (Well, maybe not Sally Field but I'm still glad she won.) Can't wait to
see what you come up with this season.
And since they ignored you in their
hashtag, congratulations again to Hiro Murai. You've deserved to win in this
category since Atlanta. I'm thrilled at what you accomplished even if it
did get in the way of a perfectly good hashtag.
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