by Julia Pierrepont III
LOS ANGELES, Sept. 18 (Xinhua) -- The American Emmy Awards stepped up to address the issue of diversity in their award nominations, but only some of that effort translated into wins during Monday night's Emmys Telecast and last week's Creative Emmys.
The two male co-hosts (the Emmys received quite a bit of heat from the Hollywood community for not casting a female co-host), "Saturday Night Live'"s Michael Che and Colin Jost, introduced a spirited song and dance number with the tongue-and-cheek title, "We Solved it!" The number satirized the propensity of an industry still dominated by straight white males to glibly count an uptick in diverse nominations as reason enough to take a "problem-solved," self-congratulatory victory lap.
The nominations were heralded as "the most diverse in history" by songwriters and performers Kate McKinnon, Kenan Thompson, Sterling K. Brown and Kristen Bell.
Though solving the problem of fair representation may still be a tantalizing Holy Grail, the Emmys are certainly making strides, including Sandra Oh's historic nomination -- the first Asian woman to be nominated for the Lead Actress in a Drama award.
In all, 38 people of color were nominated this year, a substantial gain over previous years, and many were in the major categories, including: Antonio Banderas, "Genius: Picasso"; Sterling K. Brown and Ron Cephas Jones, "This Is Us"; Tracee Ellis Ross, Anthony Anderson and Wanda Sykes, "Black-ish"; Jeffrey Wright and Thandie Newton, "Westworld"; Issa Rae, "Insecure"; Penelope Cruz, Ricky Martin, Darren Criss and Edgar Ramirez, "The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story"; John Leguizamo, "Waco", and Tituss Burgess, "Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt," to name a few.
Nominee Antonio Banderas told Xinhua, "It is great to get the recognition for playing someone so talented from my own country."
"The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel," a woman-led comedy, edged out more racially diverse shows like "Insecure," "Black-ish," "Atlanta" and "Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt." Winner of the Best Actress in a Comedy, Rachel Brosnahan, spoke ardently about the need to vote in the mid-term elections, but the #MeToo or #TimesUp movements that are meant to be transforming Hollywood and gender politics in America were strangely absent.
Unfortunately, Emmy winners this year were not as diverse as the nominations: only three people of color took home statues Monday night, compared with last year's men of color taking three of the top lead actors' awards.
This year's winners of color were: Thandie Newton for Outstanding Supporting Actress in "Westworld," Regina King for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Limited Series in "Seven Seconds," and Darren Criss, who is half Filipino, for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Limited Series for "The Assassination of Gianni Versace: American Crime Story."
That number was tripled by the other six wins by people of color nabbing statues during the Creative Arts Emmys last weekend, which was not televised.
However, representation was higher for the Guest Star awards and the winning shows.
"RuPaul's Drag Race," created and hosted by a transgender black man, Ru Paul, snapped up five Emmys, including Outstanding Reality Competition Program, and the Netflix reboot "Queer Eye" has three new statues to polish: Outstanding Casting, Outstanding Editing and Outstanding Producing.
This year was notable in that all four of the winners for the Outstanding Guest Actor and Actress were black, including Ron Cephas Jones, who took home the Outstanding Guest Actor in a Drama trophy for his touching performances in "This is Us," and Samira Wiley, who won the Outstanding Guest Actress for her poignant role in "The Handmaid's Tale."
Katt Williams earned an Outstanding Guest Actor in a Comedy for his role in "Atlanta," while Tiffany Haddish took home a statue for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Comedy for hosting "Saturday Night Live."
Another notable first was "Strong Island" filmmaker, Yance Ford, who made history as the first openly transgender man (and black) to win Exceptional Merit in Documentary Filmmaking.
A humorous video insert by Che gave "Reparation Emmys" to pivotal black performers who have been snubbed by the American Academy of Television Arts and Sciences over the years. Che may have to shoot a sequel after Monday night's underwhelming representation of winners.
Critics are noting that being brutally self-aware of one's shortcomings doesn't absolve one of the need to improve them, no matter how many jokes Hollywood makes about itself.
The New York Times said it best, "The Emmys Joked About TV's Lack of Diversity, and Then Demonstrated It."
