Lack of diverse acting winners suggest structural voting issues

Sunday’s Primetime Emmy Awards may have had a record number of diverse nominees, but the lack of diversity in its acting winners has caused many say #EmmysSoWhite.

Despite performers of color comprising nearly half of all acting nominations, white actors swept all 12 lead and supporting races across the comedy, drama and limited series categories.

“It was disappointing,” said Darnell Hunt, dean of social sciences and professor of sociology and African American studies at UCLA. “It becomes a numbers game after a while. When you have 44% of the nominees that are people of color and you have 0% that win, there’s something structural going on.”

There are few that would say that icons like Kate Winslet, Olivia Coleman and Gillian Anderson or breakout performers like Brett Goldstein and Hannah Waddingham were not deserving of their Emmy wins. However, Sunday’s snub of non-white performers is not new and has called into question Hollywood’s ability to celebrate excellence equitably.

This is especially important when ceremonies like the Emmy Awards offer more to winners than just a gold trophy. An Emmy win brings prestige to both the winner and the studio they work for, which can lead to bigger paychecks and better funding for future productions, Hunt said.

Over the last decade, streaming service Netflix has gained invaluable prestige from Emmy wins for shows like “Orange is the New Black” and “The Crown,” which has enabled it to entice top talent like Ryan Murphy, Shonda Rhimes and Guillermo del Toro.

Part of the issue with this year’s Emmys is optics. While the Primetime ceremony, which aired on CBS Sunday, did not see any acting awards go to people of color, the Creative Arts Emmys, which took place the week before, did.

Courtney B. Vance was honored his guest role in HBO’s “Lovecraft Country,” Dave Chappelle and Maya Rudolph each won an award for hosting “Saturday Night Live,” Sterling K. Brown garnered a win for outstanding narrator and Keke Palmer and J.B. Smoove won the awards for outstanding actress and actor in a short form comedy or drama, respectively.

The problem is that these awards were given out at a separate, less publicized event.

“In the technical categories at the Creative Arts Emmys there were a lot of wins for people of color,” said Nate Thomas, a professor of cinema and television arts and the head of the film production program at California State University. “So, I guess my point is that just because it wasn’t at the televised or the primetime awards … there is still some worth in that.”

Thomas, who won a regional Emmy Award in 2014 for producing and directing a television public service ad for the Federal Bureau of Investigations, said the Television Academy has “come a long way”…