'WHAT REALLY HAPPENED AT THE OSCARS?" 2017 - media magazine article notes. In 2017 'La La Land' had already won multiple awards, yet when 'Moonlight' had won for best picture 'La La Land' was accidentally called out instead.
Why is this significant?
Moonlight was a worthy winner and a rarity in American cinema. The film is an entirely black cast, and the plot focuses on a young gay man growing up, who happens to be black. Typically, films about black characters tend to be about their blackness and are not given the same stories as white protagonists. Moonlight did not follow this cliché, making its win all the more worthy. It's moment being ruined took away from the spotlight, causing people to focus more on the embarrassment rather than the win.
"A society becomes post-racial when skin colour becomes incidental and irrelevant"
Oscar history
The Oscar's are not necessarily anything great, they are a place where the rich and powerful vote for other rich and powerful, to get awards that make them more rich and powerful. However, they do have power in mainstream culture, and can determine how far a film or documentaries reach goes. This has the power to change people's minds on a variety of things, such as in the case of Moonlight, racism and homophobia.
In 1939 Hattie McDaniel was the first black actress to win, (for her role in Gone with the wind), yet she was put at the back on a segregated table. - This winning role however was a stereotype, McDaniel played the role of a 'mammy'.
In Oscar history only 63 out of 3000 awards have been awarded to black people.
In 2016 the hashtag 'Oscarsowhite' campaign kicked off after all 20 acting nominations were given to white actors. This was a result of a primarily white voting body, such a homogenous voting body would always be less inclined to advocate for films that don't represent their own experiences.