#DiVERSITYMATTERS: THIS YEAR’S EMMY NOMINATIONS

Television Academy rising to the moment with a diverse list of nominations for this year. 

Congratulations to Issa Rae, Ramy Youssef, Tracee Ellis Ross, Kenan Thompson, Yvonne Orji, Zendaya, Sandra Oh, Laverne Cox and others for their Emmy Nominations this year.

With nominations landing after a two-month-long national reckoning over race, that was a major question looming over the awards, which have shown a troubling lack of racial diversity in the past. A recent report in the L.A. Times calculated that the vast majority of Primetime Emmy nominees in the last few years have been white.

This year there were 38 black performers nominated for acting awards, a big bump up from last year. Those included Black-ish stars Anthony Anderson and Tracee Ellis Ross, Insecure’s Issa Rae, Black Monday’s Don Cheadle, Pose’s Billy Porter, Thandie Newton of Westworld,and This Is Us star Sterling K. Brown.

Ramy Youssef, the co-creator and star of Hulu’s “Ramy,” was also among those recognized in the comedy actor category, becoming the first Muslim American sitcom to land an Emmy nomination.

“There’s this idea that when you say you’re Muslim, that you’re either all in or you’re trying to escape it,” Youssef told the L.A. Times in a previous interview. “I love the idea of gradations and levels, just like everybody else has.”

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