Do the GRAMMYs have a diversity problem?

It was another Grammy moment that lit up Twitter. Taylor Swift had just become the first female solo artist to win album of the year twice, this time for her chart-busting album 1989. On her way to the stage in 2016, she hugged Kendrick Lamar, who also had been nominated in the category.

That Lamar had lost bothered John Vilanova, now a professor of journalism, communications, and Africana studies at Lehigh University in Bethlehem, Pa.

“Don't get me wrong. I love Taylor Swift and respect her a lot,” said Vilanova, who was watching the Grammys that night. Black Lives Matter had been mobilizing around the country, and stories of U.S. police violence had captured international attention. For Vilanova, Lamar’s album To Pimp a Butterfly and song of the year-nominated single “Alright” were like soundtracks. “It really, really struck me. Just because it felt so not representative of the year that we had. And so disrespectful to the people that we had lost.”

And so, Vilanova went digging. Much of his research went into his doctoral dissertation at the University of Pennsylvania, which will be expanded into a forthcoming book.

What he found is not that black artists get shut out at the Grammys— Lamar, for example, has won 13— but that the top honors historically elude them. Black artists regularly win categories that are considered black music, like rap or R&B, but do less well in the “general field”: album of the year, record of the year, song of the year, and best new artist.

Vilanova’s research, which focused on anti-blackness, found that Little Richard, Sam Cooke, George Clinton, and the Four Tops all won their first Grammys for lifetime achievement. Ray Charles didn’t win in the big categories until 2005, with his final, posthumous album. Aretha Franklin, who won 18 Grammys, never was nominated for the top four.

To explore how this happened, Vilanova looked at racial attitudes in the United States and the music industry over time. Following Brown v. Board of Education, the 1954 Supreme Court decision that found public school segregation unconstitutional, there was widespread disapproval of treating a specific group poorly. However, Vilanova argues, there was a rise of another kind of racism: treating white American culture, history, values and systems as inherently superior.

He also found that the concept of excellence wasn’t colorblind. It was vague, and could be used to reward white standards. This extended to how we honor music.

“You have an industry that is invested in suggesting that it knows what excellence is,” he said. The National Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences has “never defined what makes excellence, in part because you can't.”

The academy, which organizes the Grammys, is at a critical moment. Sunday’s ceremony will be the second since the organization launched a task force for diversity and inclusion. Earlier this month, the academy put on administrative leave its president and CEO, Deborah Dugan, following allegations of misconduct. Then news broke that Dugan had filed an EEOC complaint, alleging that the academy’s decision was in retaliation for complaints she raised around voting irregularities, sexual violence and diversity. The Recording Academy did not respond to requests for comment for this story.

The Inquirer spoke to Vilanova about more than six decades of Grammy history and diversity. The timeline reflects some of the biggest milestones -- and misses -- that have shaped the annual awards ceremony.