Golden Globes fallout: HFPA member says lack of Black members ‘was not really anything we focused on’

Two days after a Golden Globes marked by controversy, The Hollywood Foreign Press Assn. continues to face questions over the fact that the 87-member group of international journalists that votes on one of the industry’s most important awards has not had a single Black member in more than 20 years.In a new interview with the Australian morning news show Today conducted after the awards show, Australian HFPA member Jenny Cooney acknowledged that for years the lack of Black members “was not really anything we focused on,” saying that because the group includes people of color from countries such as India, Bangladesh and the Philippines, “we didn’t really consider [the lack of a Black member] a problem.”

“Now, of course, we realize that we should have been much more proactive about really going out of our way to recruit and work with the media, the journalists, the foreign press everywhere,” she said. “And that’s what we’re committed to doing now that we’ve really understood.”

In a recent interview with Variety, former HFPA president Meher Tatna confirmed the organization has not had a Black member in more than 20 years. In 2013, the group rejected a Black applicant, British-based Samantha Ofole-Prince, a decision that was the subject of controversy within the group at the time and has sparked new tensions among members in recent days.

In explaining the absence of any Black members in the group, Cooney said in part that the group has been distracted the past year by “a lot of turmoil” due to the COVID-19 pandemic. She also attempted to pin some responsibility on the Motion Picture Association (formerly known as the Motion Picture Association of America, or MPAA), which compiles a press list for studios of accredited entertainment journalists that the HFPA relies upon as part of its application process.

“Keep in mind, the members of the HFPA have to be vetted first by the Motion Picture Association — it was a way of us making sure that all of our members were legitimately journalists — and the MPAA did not have a Black member in their international directory at all,” she said. “Not to throw them under the bus, but that was the pool that we were choosing from.”

According to a source familiar with the MPA’s procedures, the MPA is not involved in any way with the HFPA’s membership decisions beyond providing access to their media directory. The group’s list of accredited press has some 200 journalists on it, and the trade organization does not ask applicants about their race or ethnicity.

Ofole-Prince was first accredited by the MPA in 2011 and is still on the group’s directory.