#OscarsSoWhite: Do We Need Alternate Award Systems For People of Color?

After the release of the Oscar nominees, Jada Pinkett Smith along with many of people on Twitter, released a number of tweets expressing their disappointment with the lack of diversity in the nominees. Jada also released a short video explaining her thoughts.
For those that missed it, the tweets and video from Jada can be viewed here.

I would encourage watching the video and reading the tweets before reading the rest of this post. If you don't want to, that's fine.
Some have said that Jada's comments may be due to the fact that her husband, Will Smith was snubbed for his role in "Concussion".

But, be that as it may, the lack of cultural diversity in award shows is increasingly disturbing and it's a valid issue to address, especially after the release of the Oscar Nominees this year.

It's no surprise that black people and people of color are often snubbed during events such as The Oscars and The Grammy's. A classic example that many of us should still remember is when Kendrick Lamar gave a groundbreaking performance at the 2014 Grammy's and the award for Best Rap Album was subsequently given to Macklemore, whom, I honestly don't care if anyone disagrees, is the inferior rapper. This has been a reoccurring theme for people of occur when it comes to these award shows. We are often snubbed by the powers that be but we are always invited to perform and to entertain and lend to the popular culture that keeps such events alive.

With that being said, should people of color, establish systems intended to reward us for our accomplishments rather than rely on academies (which have been known to systemically excludes POC) controlled by the general populace?

My answer is yes.

I'll tell you why.

I don't see establishments made for and made by people of color as exclusionary. They are complimentary.
The United States of America, despite being a smorgasbord of cultures and identities, is built upon European/Anglo-Saxon values ( native american identities and traditions aside, because of the genocide yknow). Therefore the mainstream culture will reflect these European/Anglo-Saxon values and that shouldn't be expected to change, especially not overnight (even though its been hundreds of years).
Therefore, American culture will always express American values which aren't necessarily parallel to the cultures of most people of color. Therefore, establishments should be in place that compliment and fill the gap for people of color. I've found that there are certain things that I identify with as a Black person, that people of other cultures do not relate and vice verse. There's nothing wrong that, as long as they respect my culture and I respect theirs.
Therefore having alternate award systems that recognize the excellence in POC communities that may go unnoticed by more mainstream award systems would be a vast improvement over the constant complaining and aggravation that we have to deal with annually.
This brings into question, a discussion I have seen happen time and time again, integration vs. segregation. Integration vs. Segregation is a massive topic in and of itself, so I'll keep this part concise. I'll save a lengthier discussion for a different post.
It can be said that establishing award shows separately for people of color is a form of segregation because we are separating ourselves from the general populace. Some may say that this will serve POC communities more and some may say that this will serve us less. Many have argued that with the integration of People of color into the general populace, we lost some of our collective individuality and instead of building for one and other, we are building for everyone and therefore, we are losing out and settling for peanuts.
It can also be said that integration into the general populace is important because we, as people of color, cannot ignore the general populace and tend only to our affairs while we live in a country with a majority of different people. It's like tending to only your lawn, while the rest of your neighborhood is crawling with weeds.  There's no way to simply only tend to yourself while in a society with others. Some interaction is necessary and how can that be established to maximize benefits for both parties? I don't know.
Like I said above, that's a much lengthier discussion that I don't believe has a straight-forward answer.
However, in the case of award systems, I do think that people of color would benefit greatly from having award shows separate from the mainstream that are put in place to recognize the massive talent within POC communities. This would create more job opportunities for black creatives, because it would inspire new and old creatives to make more content therefore creating more visibility for black creatives.  For us, representation and acknowledgement really matters.
It's unreasonable to expect a culture in which we are not apart of to fully acknowledge our greatness.
It's really that simple.
Let me know what you think by leaving a comment below! I look forward to healthy discourse.

Love & Light,

Rachel.