But she was nominated for the Academy Award for that movie so some people from the Academy had to have been impressed with her.
I remember going to the theater when that movie first came out. Black people in the audience were oohing and applauding every little thing Ross did, even though it was overacted. Non-black members of the audience were looking incredulous at them, like “are you kidding me?”. Just as people went overboard in electing Hussein Obama for President although he didn’t have the skill set, so too did people fawn over Ross despite her being a newbie to acting. Some people that profess being impressed are actually feeding their bias.