Film critics, industry flaks, and even some black entertainers have tumbled over themselves shouting the praises of Hollywood for picking three blacks for its top awards. They repeatedly toss around the words "history-making" to describe the feat. It isn't. In 1973, Cicely Tyson and Paul Winfield in Sounder, and Diana Ross in Lady Sings the Blues were nominated for the leading awards. And during most of the 1990s blacks have often been nominated for best acting and supporting acting roles. Five have won Oscars for supporting roles.
             An industry spokesperson quickly shot back that this was guesswork, and that no one knows or cares what the racial identities of the Academy voters are, and that their vote for Smith, Washington, and Berry proved that the voters are race-neutral. But Hollywood isn't. In the 74 years that the Academy has showered its top awards on its leading lights, exclusive of the Poitier best male actor award, blacks have fared dismally on and after Oscar night in Hollywood:
              Barely two percent of the nearly 300 Oscar awardees have been black.
              Hattie McDaniel, who won the best supporting actress award for her role as a maid in Gone With The Wind in 1939, was barred from the "whites only" premier of the film in Atlanta.
              Only one black has been nominated for a best film director award.
              No blacks have been nominated for a best film writer award.
              Blacks are still grossly underrepresented in the Directors and Writers Guilds, and the 4,000-member union local that includes decorators and property managers.
             Then there are the parts that garnered much critical praise for Washington, Smith, and Berry, and that got them their Academy nods. The roles of W ashington, as a foul-mouthed, rogue cop, Smith as the clowning Ali, and Berry as a sexually lustful widow skirt the thin line between knockout dramatic excellence and reinforcing the stereotypes of black males as buffoonish, menaces to society,...