Although Selma is nominated for Best Motion Picture of the Year and Alejandro G. Iñárritu’s Birdman is nominated nine times, note that there is a unique lack of diversity in Oscar acting nominations. All 20 of those who received nods for best actor, actress, supporting actor and supporting actress, are, to use a sweeping term, white.

In case you haven’t heard, the nominees are as follows:

Performance by an actor in a leading role

• Steve Carell in “Foxcatcher”
• Bradley Cooper in “American Sniper”
• Benedict Cumberbatch in “The Imitation Game”
• Michael Keaton in “Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance)”
• Eddie Redmayne in “The Theory of Everything”

Performance by an actor in a supporting role:

• Robert Duvall in “The Judge”
• Ethan Hawke in “Boyhood”
• Edward Norton in “Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance)”
• Mark Ruffalo in “Foxcatcher”
• J.K. Simmons in “Whiplash”

Performance by an actress in a leading role:

• Marion Cotillard in “Two Days, One Night”
• Felicity Jones in “The Theory of Everything”
• Julianne Moore in “Still Alice”
• Rosamund Pike in “Gone Girl”
• Reese Witherspoon in “Wild”

Performance by an actress in a supporting role:

• Patricia Arquette in “Boyhood”
• Laura Dern in “Wild”
• Keira Knightley in “The Imitation Game”
• Emma Stone in “Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance)”
• Meryl Streep in “Into the Woods”

So what does this lack of diversity in Oscar acting nominations mean? Does it signify that Academy voters are a bunch of racists, as some will claim? Or could it indicate that they are actually colorblind, voting by merit rather than by race or by what seems to be politically correct at the time? There are those who will insist that David Oyelowo, who played Dr. Martin Luther King in Selma, was robbed. I’m not one of them. If you read my Selma review, I found his performance to be a “respectable impersonation of Dr. King, mastering his manner of speech, but his performance feels more like an imitation than an interpretation.” He was the only diverse nominee in a major acting category for the Critics Choice Awards, voted on by an organization I belong to, the Broadcast Film Critics Association. Oyelowo was also nominated for a Golden Globe Award, with Quvenzhané Wallis being the only other diverse nominee by the Hollywood Foreign Press. Because the Golden Globes split films into ‘Motion Picture, Drama’ and ‘Motion Picture, Musical or Comedy’ categories, they have ten more acting nominations than the Oscars do.

While some will be offended on behalf of African Americans, Latinos, who are could well be society’s most shamelessly underrepresented segment, will be celebrating the nomination of Alejandro G. Iñárritu and his incomparable Birdman. The film received nine nominations, rivaled only by Wes Anderson’s Grand Budapest Hotel.  Birdman‘s nominations included  best picture, best director, best actor (Michael Keaton), best supporting actress (Emma Stone), Cinematography (Emmanuel Lubezki), original screenplay, sound editing and sound mixing.

Some will say that women were slighted as well, since none of the best director nods went to a female. Selma‘s African American director Ava DuVernay was the best hope, but didn’t make the cut. Nor did Angelina Jolie for Unbroken. In this critic’s opinion, neither director, regardless of race or gender, deserved a best director nomination.

I think the best argument that the Academy is voting on merit, rather than race or politics, can be found in the love shown to Clint Eastwood’s American Sniper, which was nominated for best picture, with Bradley Cooper getting a best acting nod. American Sniper is also in the running for sound editing, sound mixing and adapted screenplay, although Eastwood himself missed out on a best director nomination. Some Academy members grumbled that they would never even see a Clint Eastwood movie again after his bizarre chair antics at the Republican National Convention. But the majority of the professionals in the Academy chose to give credit where credit is due. I like to think that’s a vast majority.

Watch our panel discussion of the lack of diversity in Oscar acting nominations, as well as our predictions for Best Actor/Actress, on the ultimate episode of PBS’s movie review show Just Seen It: