Newsweek argued that Michael B. Jordan’s Sinners would have swept the Oscars if Donald Trump were not president, and this piece pushes back hard, calling that link between politics and awards absurd while preserving a quoted Newsweek passage verbatim.

I skipped the Oscars this year because the Academy’s new diversity rules made it feel like an exercise in box checking instead of art judging. Still, everyone noticed that Sinners, Michael B. Jordan’s film, arrived with huge expectations after an extraordinary run of nominations. Fans and pundits had imagined a Titanic-style haul, but the night didn’t match those dreams.

The film did take home some awards, but not the sweep many predicted, and a piece in Newsweek blamed Donald Trump for the shortfall. That claim is the kind of political blame game that has become standard from the left: if something liberal-leaning doesn’t win, it must be because of a public figure they dislike. The idea that the president single-handedly rerouted Academy votes is a stretch that deserves a clear-eyed response.

One Newsweek writer poured out a long lament about how Black-centered films have been mistreated and then concluded that the current political climate, led by President Trump, poisoned the outcome for Sinners. The column is reproduced here for context and must be read exactly as printed:

I have loved movies of all kinds since I was a child. I know the difference between a great film and a good film, the gaps between a timeless landmark and something that is simply of the now. When Sinners was nominated for a record-breaking 16 Academy Awards out of a possible 17, I was overcome with emotions. That is because I know the long sojourn of Black-centered films in the American cinematic saga, and I also know the gut-churning racism of Black character depictions in most movies not made by us.  

So, I went into my annual viewing of the Oscars with muted expectations. I, we, have been deeply disappointed so many times before. Yet I held out hope because Sinners, which my wife and I saw three times, is truly a groundbreaking work of art. Sinners is for movies what, say, Stevie Wonder’s Songs in the Key of Life is for music: a once-in-countless-generations classic that transcends people and time and space and universes. Indeed, Sinners is a film that explores, brilliantly and in unparalleled ways, race and identity in America through the lens of the horror genre; through the use of the blues, through a rainbow coalition of Black, White, Indigenous, Asian, Irish, and Jewish personas unlike anything, frankly, we’ve ever seen in all of filmmaking. 

But in this era of President Donald J. Trump, and some of the most obscene divisions we’ve ever endured in America—and certainly unlike anything I have ever witnessed on this grand of scale in my lifetime—I believe, deep in my bones, the level of hatred and ignorance out here not only undermined what should have been a record-breaking victory lap for Sinners but also turned, instead, into a coronation of an equally controversial but very different film, Paul Thomas Anderson’s One Battle After Another. 

[…] 

Moreover, if we are honest, Hollywood has always had a hard time acknowledging Black films by Black creatives that center Black characters in ways that present us as the whole human beings we are, while also unapologetically examining the American racism of any era. Think Spike Lee’s Do The Right Thing, think the body of work of Black auteurs like Julie Dash or Charles Burnett. While a genuine effort to try to make sense of the madness of oppression and alienation, One Battle After Another still landed, with very uncomfortable bumps, into some very stereotypical tropes about race, about Black women and sexuality, even about the mythologies of Black activism.

The reaction to that column was predictable: outrage, indignation, and a rush to political explanation. My reaction is simpler and blunt. The Academy is not a monolith run by Trump supporters, and award outcomes hinge on taste, timing, campaign strategy, and groupthink more than on presidential popularity. Pointing at Trump as the scapegoat lets Hollywood skip the harder work of honest artistic debate.

I get the emotional stakes. People care deeply about how Black stories are told and honored, and some films are milestones. That does not mean every perceived slight is a political attack. History is full of great work that was underappreciated at the time and eventually acknowledged, and just as often artistic choices and narrative fits determine winners in ways that have nothing to do with current politics.

If you loved Sinners, be proud of what it represents and keep supporting films that broaden the range of voices and stories in American cinema. If you were frustrated by the results, remember awards night is not a final verdict on a film’s value. And if you find yourself blaming a politician for every disappointment, it might be time to step back and reclaim the conversation about art from the partisan noise.