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Watch Chris Rock Explain How Ridiculous It Is to Separate the Oscars for Best Actor and Best Actress

2 minute read
By Robin Hilmantel

The lack of ethnic diversity among last night’s nominees may have been Chris Rock’s biggest issue with this year’s Oscars, but he also squeezed in some incisive commentary on subconscious gender bias. While suggesting that the Academy introduce “black categories” as a tongue-in-cheek solution to its diversity issue, he called out the inherent inequality in separating the awards for Best Actress from Best Actor and Best Supporting Actress from Best Supporting Actor:

If you want black nominees every year, you need to just have black categories. That’s what you need. You need to have black categories. You already do it with men and women. Think about it, there’s no reason to have a men and women category in acting. There’s no reason. It’s not track and field; you don’t have to separate them. Robert De Niro has never said, “I’ve got to slow this acting down so Meryl Street can catch up.” If you want black people at the Oscars, just add black categories like ‘Best black friend.’ That’s right, and the winner for the 18th year in a row is Wanda Sykes. This is Wanda’s 18th black Oscar.

Rock is absolutely correct that there’s no logical reason for separating men and women in this way. None of the other categories—like directing, cinematography or costume design—are broken out for men and women.

Of course, to Rock’s point about black nominees, there is the downside that women would take home fewer Oscars if the acting categories were to be combined. Just look how women have fared in the Best Director category—Kathryn Bigelow was the first and only woman to win this award in 2010.

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Write to Robin Hilmantel at robin.hilmantel@time.com