Surely the issue isn't the ethnic identity of Mr. Martin but whether directing the "Best Documentary" should be distinguished from winning "Best Director"?

Good Afternoon Mr. Martin,
I, for one viewed and enjoyed yours & Dan Lindsay's extraordinary documentary, "The Undefeated". All I can say is, Congratulations on your Academy Award on a fine piece of art.

I wasn't happy about McQueen not getting Best Director either, but it bears pointing out that the guy who did, Alfonso Cuarón, is Latino, born in Mexico, and a white American male hasn't won the Best Director award since the Coen Brothers in '07.

Yankees Suck!

just sayin'

Holy crap, what a babe!

If a small survey of the few children of Academy voters I know (of) is correct, most voters do not care about their ballots and let their children do it for them. Case in point: how else would Triple Six Mafia win an oscar?

The guy looks American to me. Sadly, too many Americans don't really know what we look like, and they just figure if it ain't some white guy, it ain't really American. Which is ludicrous. Americans look like everybody else, except they look uniquely American. It's weird that way.

Oomph. Tricky subject. As a mixed kid who was born and lived abroad until the age of ten and went to private schools (and thus never "sounded" or "acted" black), I've always felt a lot of ambivalence towards our propensity to hail mixed people as the first black this or that. I remember being really annoyed watching Halle Berry's tearful speech as the First Black Woman to Win Best Actress, seeing it in part as a negation of the white woman who raised her. Similar feelings arose later with our First Black President, another Halfrican who was raised partially abroad by a white woman. Obviously, people have a right to identify however they want to, but a lot of times I wonder if it's fully their choice or at least partially influenced by society's desire that you keep things simple and just be one or the other.

@9 Spot on. Agree.