Last week the 88th Academy Awards took place. Unique from other years winning awards what does not matter anymore. Every candidate matters because they’re white and colorless. This caused many people to become angry with Hollywood and the awards resulted in a boycott of the awards and the hashtag that started in April, #OscarsSoWhite. Is Hollywood really racist?
Last week the 88th Academy Awards took place. Unique from other years winning awards what does not matter anymore. Every candidate matters because they’re white and colorless. This caused many people to become angry with Hollywood and the award resulted in a boycott of the award and the hashtag #OscarsSoWhite.
Celebrities react in other ways.
Will and Jada Smith were so outraged that they really boycotted the award.
Smith told Good Morning America, “This is so not about me. It’s about kids going to watch the show and they are not going to see themselves represented.”
Mark Ruffalo argues that the problems in Hollywood are bigger problems in America’s criminal justice system, education system, and legislative system. Ruffalo called on people who supported the Oscar boycott to also support the Black Lives Matter Movement.
Ruffalo told The Guardian, “It’s not just the Academy Awards. The whole American system full of this sort of white privilege racism that creeps into our justice system.[1]
Danny DeVito thinks Hollywood is racist because the entire country is racist.
“We live in a country that discriminates and has certain racist leanings,” DeVito told the Associated Press. “So sometimes it manifests itself in something like this, and it fires.”
According to The National Review, Lena Dunham said, “it’s hard to be a non-white man in the film industry.”
George Clooney said, “If you think back ten years ago, the Academy did a better job. Think of how many more African Americans have been nominated.”[2]
Chris Rock hosted the Oscars. As one would expect amidst all the debate over the Oscars, his opening monologue addresses the subject.
Rock offers a solution by comparing the issue of racism with the issue of sexism in Hollywood. Create a black category. There are already categories divided between female and male when not needed, so adding a black category makes just as much sense.
Rock explained that Hollywood is racist, but that is the kind of racism you are used to- “coed racism” which essentially means the director is good and like those black actors, but will not cast them for leading roles.[3]
Conversely, Charlotte Rampling told The Guardian, ““One never really knows, but maybe black actors don’t deserve to make the final list… Why classify people? These days everyone was more or less accepted… People would always say: ‘He, he’s not good-looking’; ‘He, he’s too black’; ‘He’s too white’ … someone will always say ‘You too’ … But should we take it from this that there should be a lot of minorities everywhere?”[4]
Penelope Ann Miller told The Hollywood Reporter, “I do not want to be lumped into a racist category because I certainly am not and since I support and benefit from the talent of black people in this business… there were an incredible number of films in 2015 that were primarily about black people. white. Talk to the studio about changing that, not the Academy.
Stacey Dash thought ending the BET Awards would be an effective way to force Hollywood to include people of color as nominees.
Despite all the wrangling over award shows, the show kept going. Movies, actors and actresses are awarded for their talent.
Reference:
[1] http://www.theguardian.com/film/2016/jan/22/oscars-2016-charlotte-rampling-diversity-row-racist-to-white-people
[2] http://www.nationalreview.com/article/430352/oscar-nominations-hollywood-racism
[3] http://oscar.go.com/video/oscar-highlights-2016/academy-president-cheryl-boone-isaacs-addresses-diversity-at-the-oscars-2016
[4] http://www.theguardian.com/film/2016/jan/22/oscars-2016-charlotte-rampling-diversity-row-racist-to-white-people
[5] http://www.nationalreview.com/article/430352/oscar-nominations-hollywood-racism
