Do the Emmys Have a Race Problem?

regina-King-emmys.jpgUntil Archie Panjabi's surprise win this year for The Good Wife, only eight people of color had ever won an Emmy in the top four acting categories for drama and comedy. It's a sobering statistic about the racial inequality that still persists on television, and after watching the Emmys this weekend (and being mistaken for another black actress), it has Southland's Regina King ready to speak her mind.

The actress (who really should have merited Emmy consideration for the first season of Southland) vocalized her concerns in a Huffington Post essay:

Since the Emmy ceremony, I have been going back and forth about whether or not I should compose this letter. I try hard in my daily life not to engage in uncomfortable situations regarding race. But sometimes it's very difficult to find other reasons that better explain why certain events play out the way they do. It is impossible for me to ignore the published statistics regarding the number of people of color mentioned, celebrated or honored in the history of the televised Emmys. Up to and including this year, there have been only 53 non-white actors nominated for emmys out of nearly 1,000 possible nominations in the top four acting categories for drama and comedy.

I've worked in television nearly all of my professional life, and that statistic is quite sobering to me. And to add injury to my already sensitive nerve endings a picture of Rutina Wesley from True Blood, who attended this year's Emmys, had a caption that read: "Regina King enters the 62nd Emmys." No, I wasn't there. Mistakes happen, right? Well after a few "mistakes" of how people of color are portrayed in the Hollywood media, I decided it was important to say something about how things go down in Hollywood.

The initial pull on my heart strings was not seeing the veteran Sesame Street actress Alaina Reed Hall included in this year's memoriam [...] I am assuming other actors have lost someone close to them who weren't recognized during that segment of previous Emmy telecasts. So I will take the stats about people of color out of my complaint and pose an essential question on behalf of any television artist of note working in our business. What is the process in determining who will and will not be recognized during the Emmy memoriam?

We wish we knew. But what do you think: Does King have a point?

The Emmys: As White As Ever [HuffPo]



Comments

  • No, I'm afraid Miss King doesn't have a point. Her industry is berserkly racist, true, but it's against whites, not whatever race she is. TV fare is filthy and degenerate---I fail to see the point of making moral arguments about something as banal as how many minority get "honored" or memorialized for their contributions to the "entertainment" sewer. Tell you what -- we the non-self-hating whites will be happy to listen to her as soon as the Jewsmedia allow creation of a network called White Entertainment Television. Deal?
    Come now, don't deny Jewish domination of the media in the age of Spielberg, Katzenberg, Geffen, and the Jew York Times group! What, does my sarcasm offend? Take a look at how these Jewish industries portray Christianity and then let's talk about bigotry and hate.

  • Lauren says:

    You are full of CRAP and a half and just who do you think you are kidding?!! SO WHAT if there is BET and what you all NEED your own network now. Right because it's just so RARE to see white people on tv every time I watch tv I'm AMAZED at how slighted white people always are!! It must just SUCK to be a white person and HARDLY EVER see yourself you poor,poor thing. That's just so bad for you yeah tv just hasn't done ENOUGH to showcase white people!!!

  • Lauren says:

    When was the FIRST time there was a person of color on 'Frasier' or 'Cheers' or 'Mad about You' or 'Friends' ?!! You a-holes discriminate all the DAMN time but you expect it to be 'different' for you?! And why does BET need to give a white person ANYTHING?!! It's not like you all don't have a MILLION chances to win any OTHER award and when was the last time a black person won 'best director' at the Oscars?! Since we're asking those kinds of questions and all.

  • Lauren says:

    @Nelson Waller
    You are as STUPID as you are full of it!! Since when the hell do white people even NEED your own damn network?!! It must be because you HARDLY ever see white people on tv certainly not on NBC,HBO,CBS,TNT,Fx,Showtime,Cinemax,FOX,AMC and all the other billion network that ONLY show white people!! Obviously dummies like you don't watch 'Mad Men' or 'The Sopranos' or the BILLION shows that cater to white audiences so get over yourself you hypocritcal jackass! And Ms. king has ever right to be upset with they are lumping her in with the wrong damn actress! Like why bother to get her name right when they all look alike.

  • Lauren says:

    Thank you!!

  • Lauren says:

    I noticed that too like with Will Smith's 'Wild Wild West'. The critics were merciless yet I saw it and it wasn't that bad. Yeah 'Catwoman' was NOT great but I have a sneaky suspcion if that were Angelina Jolie or Uma Thurman in the role it would have been different. 'Kill Bill' was about the most ridiculous movie ever full of cliches and stupid plotlines yet the critics were tripping over themselves to praise it.

  • "Civil rights" boosters have insisted they want equality for over a century, but as long as BET exists with no white equivalent, there AIN'T nothing equal about it. This is just further proof that what liberalism really wants is supremacism and white dispossession.

    As long as BET goes on, "equality" and "fairness" are a sham. But even without it, same stuff -- Miss Black America, Black Chamber of Commerce, Legislative Black Caucus ad inf. YOU want SEPARATE AND UNEQUAL. The equality thing was a big fat LIE and you can't deny it.

    Don't look now, but the whole time you're jeering at whites that don't want to be dinosaurs, Mexican and other invaders are stealing blacks' jobs by the thousands, as engineered by Jews like Ben Wattenberg and Emmanuel Celler. Self-respecting whites are the ONLY people who have tried to stop this, with basically zero help from other races. Wake up, get real, it's not 1965 anymore. Your filthy language and abuse is just proof you've got no argument.