Social media is calling out one of the country’s biggest Colombian-American entertainers for not acknowledging that an Afro-Latino was nominated for an Oscar in a major category.
Tony Award-winning actor John Leguizamo has been outspoken about the Academy Awards and Emmys’ lack of diversity. In the past, he has tweeted and publicly protested the annual award show for not nominating Latin actors and industry professionals and asserts the use of the term “people of color” is a way to blot out the Latin community and their contributions.
In 2020, Leguizamo spoke about boycotting the Emmy Awards during an interview with Yahoo Entertainment.
“If you don’t have Latin people, there’s no reason for me to see it, what’s the point?” he asked before calling exclusion a “cultural apartheid.”
The “John Wick” star said that studios and “executives” don’t truly understand the impact of LatinX in the industry, saying, “Executives don’t see us, don’t get us — don’t care about us.”
When Real America with Jorge Ramos posted on Twitter that “Only ONE LatinX actor, writer, and/or director is nominated in a major category at the 2021 Academy Awards,” Leguizamo retweeted the meme adding, “We were excluded again!”
His argument goes further than boycotting the shows, according to an op-ed for Rolling Stone, where he said it’s in how brown people are portrayed in the industry and presented as if they don’t bring butts in the seats.
“If we are almost 20% of the U.S. population, 25% of total box office sales in the U.S., and add $2.8 trillion to the American economy, how come we’re not getting bang for our buck?” he said.
He continued, “We are 5.2% of film leads, 3.1% of TV leads, and less than 1% of the stories or execs. In baseball, we dominate because you can measure our success in stats. We kill in music because you can measure scans. But in Hollywood, when execs don’t look like us and rely on their opinion or taste, we lose.”
Over and over the former Queens resident speaks out about diversity and the urging of executives to make more programming, including Disney movies like “Coco” and “Encanto,” but many are blasting him for not celebrating when Afro-Latinos are recognized by the industry as if their images don’t matter to lighter-skinned Latinos or Hispanics.
“Somebody tell John Leguizamo that a Latino got nominated,” one X user tweeted in celebration of Colman Domingo’s “Best Actor in Leading Role” nomination for his portrayal of Bayard Rustin in “Rustin.”
Somebody tell John Leguizamo that a Latino got nominated. https://t.co/8F2X6dgfnz
— Ricki Flake (@linluv5) January 23, 2024
Domingo, a Philadelphia native, is of Belizean and Guatemalan ancestry and identifies as Afro-Latino and was nominated for the Academy Award on Tuesday, Jan. 23. He’s also the first Afro-Latino to be nominated in that category.
The National Hispanic Foundation for the Arts also was dragged for not recognizing Domingo.
uhhhh…. pic.twitter.com/kcsRKrAAZu
— courtney stands w palestine 🇵🇸 (@k1llacourt) January 23, 2024
The organization returned to their X profile and rectified their mistake, writing, “We completely agree that Colman Domingo’s historic nomination should be celebrated – and we wanted to call out this moment in a separate post. We will continue working hard to bring light to the wins of the Latino community in the arts.”
Shortly after posting their response, they posted a dedicated tweet to the actor.
We're thrilled that Colman Domingo has been nominated for Actor in a Leading Role at the 2024 #Oscars for his powerful performance as Bayard Rustin, a key figure in the civil rights movement. pic.twitter.com/bmBqhGJi4Y
— National Hispanic Foundation for the Arts (@HispanicArts) January 23, 2024
Others chimed in, tagging the actor and writing, “Hey booh! You see this!????”
When one person asked what was the issue, the X user wrote, “WELL! John complained about the lack of recognition that Latinos receive in Hollywood even though he worked with Jharrel Jerome who won an Emmy for When They See Us.”
“They were both in it,” the person said, “But obviously Jharrel isn’t the type of representation that John was looking for.”
WELL! John complained about the lack of recognition that Latinos receive in Hollywood even though he worked with Jharrel Jerome who won an Emmy for When They See Us. They were both in it but obviously Jharrel isn't the type of representation that John was looking for.
— Ricki Flake (@linluv5) January 23, 2024
Jerome, a man of Dominican and Haitian heritage, won the “Best Lead Actor” in a limited series for “When They See Us” at the 2019 Emmy Awards.
This year, “Ugly Betty” star America Ferrera, who also advocates for Latino representation, received her first-ever Oscar nomination for her supporting role as Gloria in “Barbie.”
While Leguizamo did not shout Jerome out at the time, nor has he yet to say anything about Domingo or Ferrera’s nods, he has taken to his social media over the last few weeks to acknowledge other lighter-skinned LatinX people making outstanding contributions in the world.
On Wednesday, Jan. 10, he posted about an 11-year-old migrant girl from Colombia who was recognized in New York for being a chess prodigy.
11-year-old migrant from Colombia transforms into chess prodigy – ABC7 New York! Pa’que sepan! https://t.co/lSYOsie7Lk
— John Leguizamo (@JohnLeguizamo) January 10, 2024
