The Oscars has often been considered to be the prime display of prejudice and segmentation, considering its propensity to favour the white privilege of talent in Hollywood, to such a degree that the #OscarsSoWhite became a trend after the 88th Academy Awards.
In a bid to revamp that non-agreeable image, the 91st Academy Awards witnessed a new kind of history - with seven black artists bagging Oscars in a range of categories.
Actors Regina King and Mahershala Ali won big in the Best Supporting Actor and Best Supporting Actress categories for their roles in If Beale Street Could Talk and Green Book respectively. Writer-Director Spike Lee earned his career-first competitive Oscar - after a long wait of almost 30 years - for co-writing BlackKklansman, with one of his co-writers including another black artist, Kevin Willmott.
A massive breakthrough against the stigma of ‘White Oscars’, came with the wins of Hannah Beachler and Ruth Carter - for Best Production Design and Best Costume Design - both for Black Panther.
While Ruth became the first black woman to win an Oscar in the category of Best Costume Design, Hannah was the first black person to even be nominated in the category for Best Production Design. Ruth and Hannah were also the first black women to win in a non-acting category since Irene Cara in 1984, who won for best original song, 'Flashdance... What A Feeling', which she co-wrote.
Joining Ruth and Hannah in becoming the first black to win an Oscar in a category was Peter Ramsey, one of five winners for Best Animated Feature for Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse.
With these seven big wins, the 91st Academy Awards has proved to alter Oscar history - and ushered in a new era of greater diversity and inclusivity.
This is especially heightened when compared to the record set in 2016, when five back artists won big at the Oscars. This included - Viola Davis as Best Supporting Actress for Fences and Mahershala Ali as Best Supporting Actor for Moonlight; Best Documentary Feature Director-Producer Ezra Edelman for OJ: Made in America and screenwriters Barry Jenkins and Tarell Alvin McCraney for Moonlight.
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