Opinion: Hollywood is Oblivious of Black Men…Again.
Chimére L. Smith-Sweeney
August 2, 2023
3:40pm ET
The 2023 Emmy Nominations paints an ugly picture of how both Hollywood and America view Black male lead actors — and Black men — by ignoring them.
Yesterday, I had a meltdown. I yelled. I screamed. I lost my voice again for the second time in less than two weeks, (thanks, Covid.) And I cried.
My phone was the catalyst of my angst but there was only one culprit.
The Television Academy’s failure to nominate Black actors for the Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series in The 2023 Emmy Nominations caused much of my upset.
This meltdown lasted longer than mine usually do. Even when I stopped acting acomplete fool alone in my home, I ferociously shook my head and cursed under my breath between doing chores and paying bills on my laptop. I scrolled through social media, looking at many posts congratulating Black women nominated for Emmys this season.
I’m Black. I’m a woman. As a fellow DC native, seeing Taraji P. Henson's nomination for Outstanding Guest Actress In A Comedy Series this year for her performance in Abbott Elementary gave me goosebumps. She is an acting powerhouse.
But I withheld many of my loves and likes for these posts because I had a bigger gripe.
Why weren’t there any Black male lead actors nominated this year?
I’m not sure which shows the Television Academy have been watching but it must be those which cause them to be completely oblivious to the critically-acclaimed, compelling, cinematic wonder of Black male actors over the last year.
Once again, the Academy members didn’t recognize some of the most impressive acting by some of Hollywood’s young Black actors, including P-Valley’s J. Alphonse Nicholson’s rousing performance as ‘Lil’ Murda” in the show’s last season. Nicholson’s character explored a sexual, intimate, and loving commitment with Uncle Clifford – played brilliantly by Nicco Annan – while struggling to identify his complex relationship with a neighborhood friend, Big Teak (John Clarence Stewart), who served a long-term prison sentence for protecting Murda in urban Mississippi.
Before Pose, television hadn’t fully tackled queer relationships between Black men with such passion and precision. Creator and showrunner, Katori Hall, gambled with a topic still difficult for most Americans to accept — Black men who fall in love with other Black men. And so far, she’s winning with P-Valley renewed for its third season by Starz last October. Hall’s boldness in showcasing the closeted, complicated relationship between two lead characters not only reminds us that “love is love” between Black men but it echos what former Emmy president and CEO, Dick Askin, intended for the organization in the early 2000s, "We want to target people in the trenches—both above and below the line, the best and the brightest…" He added, "We are focusing on the up-and-coming in the business—the future leaders for specific memberships. In the past, they have been ignored."
No other group has been widely ignored by the Emmys as much as Black men in leading roles.
Also grossly overlooked was the beloved, yet mostly flawed “Franklin Saint,” played by British actor Damson Idris. The big-time drug dealer turned real estate businessman experiences a true existential crisis as poor choices cause him to become a destitute alcoholic waxing poetic in the final season of FX’s Snowfall. After six seasons, some of Idris’ best performances on the crime drama rival those of Denzel Washington in his heyday. (See Franklin Saint taking on Franklin Saint during a psychedelic trip in episode eight of season five. “Bodies. Bodies. Bodies. Bodies!” anyone?)
The blatant disregard of these Black actors with notable talent speaks to a larger problem in Hollywood, and in America.
Our society is still so uncomfortable with loving, supporting, and lauding appreciation and care for Black men. We handle them like toddlers approach their least favorite vegetable. We regard these men with stark curiosity but approach their experiences with fear and a disinterest that is painfully evident.
America has never made a genuine effort to understand the complicated humanity of Black men so it’s no surprise that art does imitate life when it comes to how Hollywood portrays and views them. Tinseltown continues to greenlight and spoon-feed us handsome Black drug dealers, sports figures, and sex symbols but refuses to acknowledge actors whose performances tackle the very subject matters White actors are praised for every single year: love affairs, complex ideals and feelings, and undeniable influence and power before or after a mighty fall.
The Bear’s “Carmine” (Jeremy Allen White) is allowed to break down after losing a brother. But Omari Hardwick’s “Ghost” avenging and mourning the death of Raina, his teenage daughter in Power, be damned. “Roman and Kendall Roy” (Kieran Culkin and Jeremy Strong) could whine and struggle for power between them. Yet, “Jerome” (Amin Joseph) never received any recognition for being television's most loyal, no-nonsense Black uncle.
Perhaps the reason Black men aren’t often reflected in lead actor nominee categories is simply because the Television Academy has never had many Black male members who could vote and encourage more consideration of racially and culturally diverse performances. The largest organization responsible for recognizing the best in television didn’t have its first Black Chair and CEO, Hayma Washington, until 2016 — 70 years after it was founded by Syd Cassyd. Before this, the only notable Black man invited to have a seat at the Academy’s table was BET founder and former president, Bob Johnson, who joined other White television executives and billionaires to discuss the emergence of the Internet in entertainment, back in 1994.
While Black female actors are still the lowest paid in the industry, they receive more appreciation than their male counterparts. And it makes me wonder why we must always substitute one Black group for the other? We never have an opportunity to celebrate Black talent in entertainment simultaneously. Choosing one or the other will almost always mean that the emergence of quality Black TV with equally talented Black male actors will largely be avoided unless a serious change in the Television Academy happens soon.
Many of the shows with Black nominees are those viewed and celebrated by mostly White audiences — and that is cause for concern. A show like Abbott Elementary is safe enough to lead in nominations. And usually the Black actors nominated are those who make America feel safe and comfortable overall. But does this mean that the Emmys will never recognize an impactful show set in a small town named Chucalissa, Mississippi strip club or one where drug-dealing is only the tip of the iceberg for a Black man with mommy issues in Los Angeles who could stand a slice of humble pie?
I love Succession like the rest of the world but nominating three White actors from the same show is a bit obnoxious and out of touch. Brian Cox is a revered actor but even he wasn’t pressed to star in the acclaimed show only appearing in about four episodes during its fourth and final seasons.
And if acknowledging young, new Black actors is too difficult, then why not nominate an established and esteemed Black male talent? Forest Whitaker’s “Bumpy Johnson'' in Godfather of Harlem on MGM+ (formerly EPIX) deserved more consideration as he flawlessly plays one of America’s most notable Black mobsters in Harlem during the birth of the Civil Rights Movement, influencing and immobilizing other Black men in a post-Harlem Renaissance New York.
If Hayma Washington’s leadership meant anything, his striving for “...our awards and membership activities [to] reflect the changing television environment and to work towards having the Academy be a thought leader around inclusiveness” must be considered and executed often. Hopefully, while the Writers’ Guild and Screen Actors’ Guild strike for pay equity and the negotiation of AI in their contracts, the Television Academy can ponder their decisions. (As of this publication date, The 2023 Emmys’ broadcast has been delayed.)
Otherwise, Black men in any television roles will continue to be the group Hollywood so effortlessly neglects.