Why Michelle Yeoh's Best Actress win is such a huge deal for the Oscars.

It sounds unbelievable but in the Oscars’ nearly 100-year history, Michelle Yeoh is only the second woman of colour to take home the prestigious title of Best Actress.

The 95th Academy Awards was a display of triumphs, with people of colour coming out on top. Along with Yeoh, the world is celebrating the achievements of Ke Huy Quan who is the first Asian person to win Best Supporting Actor; composer MM Keeravani, who accepted the award for Best Original Song for Telugu track Naatu Naatu (which is also the first Indian film song to win an Oscar); and Ruth E. Carter, the first black woman to win two Academy Awards.

Not to mention the film Everything Everywhere All At Once, a movie with a predominantly Asian cast, that managed to take home five Academy Awards, including Best Picture.

Watch: Michelle Yeoh’s Emotional Golden Globes Speech. Story continues after video.

It feels as if in 2023, the tides are finally turning, and the Academy is starting to recognise the immense amount of talent found within communities of colour, but is it really? Quan, who has firmly cemented himself as the most lovable man in Hollywood, was overwhelmed with emotion as he accepted his award.

“My journey started on a boat. I spent a year in a refugee camp. Somehow, I ended up on Hollywood’s biggest stage,” he said through tears. “They say stories like that only happen in the movies; I can’t believe it’s happening to me. This is the American dream!”

'The American dream' has always been sold to us as something anyone can achieve, and perhaps there is some truth to that claim. However, it’s important to recognise that for people of colour, achieving what Quan, Yeoh, Keerawani and Carter did today is a lot harder in comparison to actors and creators that don't belong to ethnic minorities. 

It makes their wins even more special, but it does force us to question: What is taking the Academy so long to catch up?

Behind the glitz, glamour and raw emotion of The Oscars lies a sordid past. Hollywood’s most prestigious award show has been hit with scandal after scandal, with one of the most recent being in 2016, when the hashtag #OscarsSoWhite began trending on social media.

The hashtag was in response to the overwhelmingly white nominations that year and resulted in many people of colour in the industry boycotting the ceremony.

The noise became too much to bear, and in an attempt to make things right, The Academy held an emergency meeting and announced an ambitious target to double the number of women and people of colour in its membership by 2020.

It took 21 years for the second woman of color to win Best Actress, and 95 years for the first Asian woman to do so.

Michelle Yeoh just made history. #Oscars pic.twitter.com/kQRc82Ce64

— Zoë Rose Bryant (@ZoeRoseBryant) March 13, 2023

However, racism at the Oscars is nothing new, nor is it surprising. In 1939, Hattie McDaniel became the first black actress to win an Oscar, but despite the accolade, she was forced to sit at a segregated table at the very back of the ceremony. She was later refused entry to the “whites only” after party.

Then, years later in 1988, before presenting the award for Best Picture, Eddie Murphy admitted that he initially declined the invitation from the Academy, re-enacting the conversation he had with his manager about it.

“‘I’m not going [to the Oscars] because they haven’t recognised black people in motion pictures.’ He said, ‘What are you talking about? Black people win Oscars!’ I said, 'Well, black actors and actresses have won Oscars throughout 60 years — it was like Hattie McDaniel won the first one, then Sidney Poitier won one and Louis Gossett [Jr.],” Murphy said.

McDaniel won in 1940, Poitier won in 1964 and Gossett in 1983.

Murphy continued: “I’ll probably never win an Oscar for saying this but, hey, what the hey, I gotta say it. Actually, I might not be in any trouble because the way it’s been going, every 20 years we get one, so we ain’t due [until] about 2004 — so by then, this will have all blown over.”

Murphy went on to receive an Oscar nomination 19 years later for his performance in Dreamgirls, but as predicted, he has yet to win.

In 2002, Halle Berry became the first woman of colour to win Best Actress for her role in Monster’s Ball. As she cried on stage, she acknowledged the black women who were nominated before her.

“This moment is so much bigger than me. This moment is for Dorothy Dandridge, Lena Horne, Diahann Carroll. It’s for the women that stand beside me, Jada Pinkett, Angela Bassett, Vivica Fox. And it’s for every nameless, faceless woman of colour that now has a chance because this door tonight has been opened.”

It’s been over two decades since that monumental moment took place, but sadly, not much has changed.

“That moment really meant nothing. It meant nothing. I thought it meant something, but I think it meant nothing,” Berry told a panel audience 15 years later. 

Since Berry’s win, only nine women of colour have been nominated for Best Actress, and today, Yeoh became the second to win. Meanwhile, other actresses such as Frances McDormand have taken home the trophy twice in the same amount of time. 

It’s often been noted by critics that when people of colour do get nominated, it’s for stereotypical parts, such as servants, criminals or slaves. Morgan Freeman, who was nominated for an Oscar for Driving Miss Daisy, a film where he plays a black chauffeur to a wealthy, white woman, later said that the role was a “big mistake”, as it typecast him into playing “wise, old, dignified, black men.”

More recently, in 2019, the Academy awarded Best Picture to the film Green Book, a movie which was criticised for perpetuating white saviour stereotypes. The win proved to be so controversial that BlackKklansman director Spike Lee made headlines after attempting to walk out of the Dolby Theatre once the winner was announced. 

Listen to Mamamia Out Loud, The Oscars took place today, and all anyone is talking about is Will Smith, Jada Pinkett Smith, and Chris Rock. And yes, that really did happen. But what happens next? Post continues below.

While the Academy has allegedly tried to diversify its membership in recent years, it is still believed that majority of voters are white, which explains why it’s much harder for people of colour to get the recognition they so rightfully deserve.

When an actor or actress wins an Oscar, it isn’t just about the acknowledgement. The title “Oscar winner” serves as a huge boost to their profile and salaries and has the tendency to completely transform their careers. So, when people of colour are denied those awards, they also miss out on the opportunities that follow. 

The world, along with us, is celebrating the wins of Yeoh, Quan and every other person of colour at this year's Oscars. Their journey to the top hasn’t been steady, but let’s hope that this year’s Academy Awards has set the tone for future ceremonies.

Feature Image: Getty