While ethnic minorities in Hollywood scream bloody murder over the lack of diversity at this year’s Academy Award nominations, they forget one important aspect of the argument. It is suffocated by ignitable racial bias, and the media’s own propagation of yet another holy grail crusade. The argument remains simple: in order for motion pictures to be nominated (whether of race or otherwise) they should at least be of award-worthy standard.

From a point of view, this seems absurd: how can there not be one motion picture in the last 52 weeks that could not hit this benchmark of excellence?

And yet, there it is.

Of the whole hullaballoo of the last few weeks (a lot of it well-founded though not well-timed especially for this year), one should consider the facts.

The Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences is an old and wise institution made up of scholarly, if unsympathetic mindsets. It has only one major flaw: a lack of ethnic diversity

This has, so far, been a lackluster year for motion pictures as far as original content is concerned. Studios big, small and even independents to some measure are now dumb-struck with the notion of releasing slates of comic-book adaptations, or expanding franchises targeting teen-to-young adults. The demographic has changed for the worse; movies are being produced for the unintelligent easily swayed by the bombastic.

In all fairness, some titles like Ant-Man, Mission: Impossible — Rogue Nation and Jurassic World offer excellent diversion. Others, for example Star Wars: The Force Awakens (the third highest-grossing film worldwide) take evasive steps to safeguard aspects of commercialism, favouring familiarity over originality. As a consequence, excellence and innovation in film-making suffers.

The changes in trend, however, do not affect the Academy.

The Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences, who hold the Oscars every year, is an old and wise institution made up of scholarly if unsympathetic mindsets; it has one major flaw — a lack of ethnic diversity.

Of the 5,765 members (the list of who’s who is near-impossible to get hold of), 94 per cent are Caucasian and 77pc male, whose median age comes in around 62, with 14pc members younger than 50. The numbers get even more shocking, as discovered by an insightful study by The L.A. Times: 90pc white males constitute the 15 branches of the Academy. Of the 43 member board of governors, only six are women and one of colour (Cheryl Boone Issacs, PR executive of the Academy, who routinely appears in every Oscar ceremony).

Academy membership — whose regulations were struck down this week to allow more ethnicity into the Academy — is awarded to professionals of stature, industry experience and/or artistic or technical contribution to film-making. The individuals should also be active in the industry; a bylaw that is now amended to be firmer than before.

This closed resilient mindset is racially wrong by default, conceivably owing to Hollywood’s own ideals of hiring and success. The old-school thought, dare I say, is also essential to upkeep the institution’s integrity.

Of the five motion pictures predominant of colour and snubbed at the Oscars, not one is a strong enough contender for the actor, director or picture categories.

Concussion, an unusual sports drama starring Will Smith as a ghost-whispering genius doctor who goes against the NFL, is finely acted. Its pace and cinematography make it more a candidate as a Jerry Bruckheimer-ish popcorn thriller, not an Oscar (Smith, of course, did nab a Golden Globe nod).

Straight Outta Compton, about the rise and fall of the hip-hop music group NWA, is a brilliant adaptation of real life that acquired enough critical acclaim to fit into one Oscar category.

Creed is both a spin-off, a sequel and maybe the culmination of the Rocky franchise. It’s a decent enough weekend watch with Sylvester Stallone’s performance as the aging Rocky Balboa (and a long, continuous boxing match) its only masterstroke (Stallone is nominated in the Best Actor, Supporting lineup, mostly because of nostalgia).

Chi-Raq (Amazon Studios), Spike Lee’s adaptation of Aristophanes’ Lysistrata, is reset as a political and anti-violence satire set in Chicago, where women deny carnal pleasures to men in a bid to stop gang violence. It is mostly a garish, fun, lyrical tableau. John Cusack playing a padre is one of two Caucasians in the narrative, which is itself racially bias, and perhaps responsible for fanning the flames of this very uproar.

Beasts of No Nation (Netflix), which garnered critical acclaim last year with Idris Alba as a rebel commandant of young children in an unnamed African country, is probably the only title I felt was unduly snubbed.

The problem, though, is not just with the Oscars; these titles are more or less snubbed at most guild awards. Compton secured a nomination at The Producers Guild Awards held last week, but all titles were disregarded by the Directors Guild. At the Screen Actors Guild, not one of the two lead actor categories have an actor of colour (Idris Alba and Beasts of No Nation are nominated in ensemble and Supporting Actor lineups;Compton shows up in Outstanding Performance by a Cast). The Critic’s Choice Awards held on Jan 17, and the BAFTAs to be held in February, repeat the Oscar lineup, with Alba’s as exception in the latter awards.

Could it be a worldwide conspiracy then? Or is the solution simpler?

Yes, there is a lack of racial diversity in the industry, but it spans a whole and the Oscars are merely a reflection of the sum of its parts.

Every year, films of race and colour do appear in the lineup. In 2011, The Help won Octavia Spencer an Oscar for Best Supporting Actress and nods in Best Picture and Actress. In 2012, Denzel Washington was nominated for Flight, and Ang Lee won for Life of Pi(since we are talking about racial diversity and not just of people of colour). In 2013, 12 Years a Slave won Best Picture, Actress (Lupita Nyong’o) and Adapted Screenplay (John Ridley); it was nominated in another six categories. Last year Selma won Best Song, and was nominated for Best Picture.

Last year also did not have any actor of colour in the four acting categories. This year repeats the pattern, probably because there is no such outstanding performance. This leads to the conclusion that, at this point, the industry is holding a necessary rally for unnecessarily prominent films. Any other year, any other lineup, and it would have been a different story.

Published in Dawn, Sunday Magazine, January 31st, 2016