This will be the whitest Oscars since 1998

Benedict Cumberbatch, Eddie Redmayne and other white people kindly welcome you to the whitest Oscars since 1998. Yes, unfortunately, you read that right: Without a nod for David Oyelowo announced this morning (see white person Brad Pitt for help on that pronunciation) 2015 will be the worst year for diversity in Hollywood since the 70th annual ceremony.

This is especially troubling when you consider that last year's Oscars was a banner year, with a Best Supporting Actress award for Lupita Nyong'o and Steve McQueen taking home the Best Picture title as producer for "12 Years a Slave." "Selma" is nominated in that category this year, so we may have a victory for Ava DuVernay's film, but that nod -- and another "Selma" nomination for Best Original Song -- hardly counts as redemption here. As Chris Rock can tell you, there are still far too few people of color in the industry, but at least one non-white person* has been nominated each year in the four acting categories since the last whitest Oscars ever nearly two decades ago. Here's the whole list:

2014	Lupita Nyong'o, Barkhad Abdi and Chiwetel Ejiofor
2013	Denzel Washington and Quevenzhane Wallis
2012	Demian Bichir, Viola Davis and Octavia Spencer
2011	Javier Bardem and Hailee Steinfeld
2010	Gabourey Sidibe, Monique, Penelope Cruz and Morgan Freeman
2009	Taraji P. Henson
2008	Ruby Dee and Javier Bardem
2007	Forest Whitaker, Will Smith, Djimon Honsou, Eddie Murphy, Jennifer Hudson, Adriana Barraza, Penelope Cruz and Rinko Kikuchi
2006	Terrence Howard
2005	Jamie Foxx, Don Cheadle, Catalina Sandino Moreno, Sophie Okonedo, Morgan Freeman and Jamie Foxx
2004	Djimon Honsou, Ken Watanabe, Benicio del Toro, Shohreh Aghdashloo and Keisha Castle-Hughes
2003	Salma Hayek and Queen Latifah
2002	Denzel Washington, Will Smith, Halle Berry and Ben Kingsley
2001	Javier Bardem and Benicio del Toro
2000	Denzel Washington and Michael Clarke Duncan
1999	Fernanda Montenegro
1998	... no one

Predictions that this would be a particularly pale year sprung up after Vulture's Kyle Buchanan provided a preemptive warning for what we could expect from the "overwhelmingly white" group of males that comprises the Academy. (The hashtag #oscarssowhite blew up on Twitter following Thursday's nominations.)

And CNN's David Daniel tweeted, the lack of diversity for this year's nominees was widespread:

David Daniel @CNNLADavid

Follow

#OscarNoms No female directors, screenwriters, or cinematographers. No actors of color. #diversity

2:46 PM - 15 Jan 2015

Speaking to Vulture after the Oscar nominations were revealed, Academy president Cheryl Boone Isaacs said the group did not have a diversity problem. "The good news is that the wealth of talent is there, and it's being discussed, and it's helpful so much for talent -- whether in front of the camera or behind the camera -- to have this recognition, to have this period of time where there is a lot of publicity, a lot of chitter-chatter," Isaacs said.

Unfortunately, it didn't translate into results. If there's a lesson to be learned here it's that we have a long way to go before we can truly talk about progress being made. Also: this sucks.

*We went with the very broadest interpretation and included actors like Javier Bardem and Penelope Cruz as "non-white," due to their Hispanic ancestry, despite the fact that many Hispanics may identify racially as white.

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