In a year when people of color dominated critics' hearts and the box office, Hollywood gatekeepers continue to shun award-worthy performances in favor of old (read: white) fallbacks.

This morning, the Screen Actors Guild announced the nominations for its 2019 awards, and the individual female acting nominees in particular are blindingly white. Sandra Oh is the only woman of color to receive an outstanding female performance nomination (for Female Actor in a Drama Series for her fantastic performance in Killing Eve) out of five categories and 25 possible slots. Zero women of color received individual distinction in the film categories, despite standout performances from If Beale Street Could Talk's Regina King (a Best Supporting Actress winner in multiple critics' circles), Roma star Yalitza Aparicio, Viola Davis in Widows, and Michelle Yeoh of Crazy Rich Asians.

Though SAG did nominate Black Panther and Crazy Rich Asians for Outstanding Performance by a Cast, it's not the same as individual recognition for a particular person's work, especially when no single actor—male or female—from either cast was nominated for a singular outstanding performance.

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Courtesy
Constance Wu in Crazy Rich Asians and Chadwick Boseman in Black Panther.

It's worth noting SAG nominated five men of color—Rami Malek (Bohemian Rhapsody), John David Washington (BlacKkKlansman), Mahershala Ali (Green Book), Darren Criss (Assassination of Gianni Versace), and Sterling K. Brown (This Is Us)—out of 25 possible slots, which means out of 50 total nominees, just six (12 percent) of individual performers nominated are non-white. It's a slight decrease from 2018's eight nominees (16 percent) and a jarring drop from 2017's 17 (34 percent).

Though Hollywood on the whole appears to be moving (albeit glacially) toward more inclusion in a post-#OscarsSoWhite world, today's nominations are a sad reminder that some institutions aren't paying attention.

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Julie Kosin
Senior Culture Editor

Julie Kosin is the senior culture editor of ELLE.com, where she oversees all things movies, TV, books, music, and art, from trawling Netflix for a worthy binge to endorsing your next book club pick. She's the former director of audience strategy and entertainment at HarpersBAZAAR.com. When not glued to her laptop, she can be found taking pictures of her dog or haunting used bookstores.