The biggest news from the Academy Award nominations hasn’t been about who was nominated so much as who wasn’t. Selma snagged a Best Picture nomination but was shut out of other major categories including director for Ava DuVernay and actor for David Oyelowo. So you would think the PR wing of the Academy would be extra careful with press related to the movie, but nope: Thursday on Instagram, the Academy posted a photo of Tessa Thompson, who plays SNCC co-founder Diane Nash and labeled it as Carmen Ejogo, who plays Coretta Scott King. A screenshot of the flub (which has since been corrected) has been making the rounds on Twitter.
It’s especially odd considering Thompson had a breakthrough year as the lead of the critical darling Dear White People, but more significantly, the screw-up seems to confirm suspicions that there’s a general lack of respect for the film. They certainly didn’t need more fodder for the #OscarsSoWhite hashtag that has been trending on Twitter, but there you go: #OscarsSoWhite all of the black actors look the same to them.
