For a film that begins by presenting a damning social statistic-more Americans have been killed in Chicago in the last decade than in Iraq and Afghanistan combined-Spike Lee's "Chi-Raq" is curiously, but not pointlessly, lighthearted.

When an industry like film remains incredibly white and male-dominated and when there have always been fewer women and minorities nominated for the Oscars, Ava DuVernay’s snub becomes not simply an unfortunate case in an equal, year-to-year competition, but part of a larger, systemic inequality trend.