Black talent who won at Sunday night’s Golden Globe awards did so in the face of an incredible lack of diversity from the voting members of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association. THE HFPA is compirised of 87 members, none of whom are black.
Black performers and artist never-the-less rose to the occasion and took home prestigious awards including: Daniel Kaluuya (Best Supporting Actor – Motion Picture, Judas and the Black Messiah); John Boyega (Best Supporting Actor – Series, Miniseries or Television Film, Small Axe); Andra Day (Best Actress – Motion Picture – Drama, The United States vs. Billie Holiday); Jon Batiste (Best Original Score – Motion Picture, Soul); co-director Kemp Powers (Animated Feature Film, Soul) and the late Chadwick Boseman (Best Actor – Motion Picture – Drama, Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom).
Andra Day became the second Black woman to win the Golden Globe for Best Actress after Whoopi Goldberg won for The Color Purple … 35 years ago.
An array of A-list stars including Ava DuVernay, Viola Davis, Sterling K. Brown, Kerry Washington, Jurnee Smollett, Gina Prince-Bythewood and more joined an initiative called #TimesUpGlobes to call out the lack of representation accompanied by copy noting, “a cosmetic fix just isn’t enough.”
In response to the #TimesUpGlobes callout, the HFPA released the following statement: “We are fully committed to ensuring our membership is reflective of the communities around the world who love film, tv, and the artists inspiring and educating them. We understand that we need to bring in Black members as well as members from other underrepresented backgrounds, and we will immediately work to implement an action plan to achieve these goals as soon as possible.”
