Danielle Deadwyler, star of Till, was nowhere to be found in the nominations for lead actress despite a wrenching depiction of Mamie Till’s mission to ensure that the barbarism of her son’s killing never went forgotten. The Woman King, the historical action epic starring and produced by actress Viola Davis, went entirely unrecognized, a shutout that defies logic. The 10,000-member organization that awards the Oscars announced its nominations for the 95th Academy Awards Tuesday morning, and while Everything Everywhere All at Once deservedly racked up a leading total of 11 nods ( All Quiet on the Western Front, The Fabelmans, and The Banshees of Inisherin also did well), the obvious absences as the nominations were announced stung. And then let’s continue to read them throughout the rest of the year.This year, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences looked at an impressive crop of cinematic contributions by Black women and largely said, “No thanks.” The academy’s celebration of high-flying, big-budget maximalism (See: Elvis, Top Gun: Maverick, and Avatar: The Way of Water), mysteriously did not extend to Nope or The Woman King. To close Asian American and Pacific Islander Month, let’s begin the celebration that is due to these Pacific Islander authors. There are incredible artists, writers, and creators of Pacific Islander descent, with stories rich with history and mythology that deserve the spotlight. Despite the absence of Pacific Islanders from publications celebrating AAPI month, they are present in the creative world and we need to remember them. alone!īy grouping these two very different communities together, we are inadvertently erasing Pacific Islanders from our collective consciousness and working against the very significance of the month itself. Sure, Hawaii and other Pacific islands like Samoa, Micronesia, Fiji, and the Marshall Islands have relatively small populations compared to the continent of Asia-but there are still over a million people with native Pacific Islander heritage in the U.S. There are articles and literature about Asian Americans aplenty, but no sign of Pacific Islanders-the other group that is allegedly meant to be celebrated. But functionally, it winds up being Asian American Month, with people of Pacific Islander heritage shoved to the side or not recognized at all. May is Asian American and Pacific Islander Month, supposedly a time to celebrate Americans with roots in Asia or the Pacific Islands.

Black Ice Matter by Gina Cole