No Blacks Nominated for Oscars

Next Sunday as the Academy gathers to celebrate the cinema industry's top performers and contributors, one group of minorities seem to be missing. In all 24 categories, not one African American had been nominated for this year's Oscars.

Among those excluded from the list of nominees include Halle Berry(who had previously won an Oscar for Best Actress), who received a Golden Globe nomination for her performance in "Frankie and Alice," Kimberly Elise's performance in "Tyler Perry's For Colored Girls," and John Legend, whose song "Shine" appeared in the documentary "Waiting For Superman."

Halle Berry in "Frankie and Alice."

This contrasts severely with last year's Oscars where African Americans received nine nominations. But Frankie and Alice didn't even receive a national release. So should bad movies and their actors receive nominations just because they is no diversity in the names of nomination?

To me, that seems like another form of racial tokenism to just include a minority in order to have diversity in the names of those nominated. I did not see any of the movies listed above so I cannot comment if Halle Berry or Kimberly Elise's performances were Oscar-worthy or not. But if they truly did a good job and deserve that Oscar, than they should definitely had been nominated. But if these actresses had been included just because of their race, they would be tokens.