Today marks a week since The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced a roster of nominations for this year’s Academy Awards that had, to put it mildly, a severe lack of diversity. Last year’s mocking hashtag OscarSoWhite was created to highlight the perceived racism of the academy for having the exact same problems as before. That the same problem is repeating itself caused people to lose their shit…So, let’s look at the myriad of people chiming in.
Spike Lee
Earlier this year, at a separate and untelevised ceremony, Spike Lee received a lifetime achievement award known as the Academy Honorary Award. Though untelevised, the Governor’s Awards are a smaller more intimate ceremony with more tributes for the guests, and are seen as an industry hot spot.
On Monday, Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, Lee posted on Instagram that, because of the lack of diversity, he would not be attending the ceremony. Lee, however, put the onus on the studios for the lack of diversity. He claimed that the lack of diversity in the various categories was proof that there was a lack of diversity at the decision-making levels. Because there are so few minorities invited to the table at the heads of the studio, there are fewer opportunities for minorities. In a second post, he proposed that the studios need to invoke their own version of the NFL’s Rooney Rule.
For those who don’t know, the Rooney Rule was started in 2006 to force NFL teams to interview minority candidates for any leadership roles. Despite not having an Affirmative Action-esque quota attached to it, in the wake of the Rooney Rule’s implementation, African American coaches went from 6% to 22%. However, the lack of quota led to a controversy in 2012 where no minorities were hired in any of the 15 vacancies across the league.
Yesterday, while promoting his upcoming documentary, Lee went on to add that he was not calling for a boycott even though he was skipping the ceremony himself. Instead, he continued his desire for Hollywood studios to hire people for “gatekeeper” roles to greenlight more diverse projects.
Jada Pinkett-Smith
Many critics see Will Smith as having been snubbed for his performance in Concussion, an otherwise very average piece of Oscar Bait about the NFL. On Monday, Will’s wife Jada Pinkett-Smith posted her own video on Facebook calling for an African American boycott of the Oscars. Pinkett-Smith addressed the black community stating that the community has untapped power and potential to demand respect in the film community and for representation.
If the connection to Will Smith throws a bit of self-serving shade on Pinkett-Smith’s plea, you’re not alone. Janet Hubert, who played Aunt Viv, threw Jada Pinkett-Smith under the bus, calling her out as a parrot for Will Smith, then proceeded to bitch Will out for not standing with the Fresh Prince crew on salary negotiations. She also, correctly, pointed out that Will Smith operated in the same manner as everybody else, having a production company that produced movies and products for his own family and friends and not the general community. In turn, Entertainment Tonight ambushed Pinkett-Smith about it, and she proceeded to make the plea for the black community to come together and not be divisive in the face of this.
Since Jada’s video, Will Smith has confirmed that he will be skipping the ceremony this year.
Whoopi Goldberg
Whoopi Goldberg has been a part of Hollywood for decades, even hosting the Oscars in 1999 (one of my favorite hosts, if I’m to be honest). As a host on the ABC* daytime talk show The View, she raged against the boycott, because the Oscars aren’t the problem. Whoopi believes that boycotting this year’s ceremony is the same as boycotting the host, and that will reflect negatively on Chris Rock, this year’s host. Even though Sunny Hostin was attempting to make statements about the racial makeup of the Academy, Whoopi wasn’t hearing it, stating that it wasn’t a significant factor.
Instead, Whoopi was focused on the same points as Spike Lee, that the gatekeepers of Hollywood don’t finance movies with or by African Americans because they believe that those movies don’t make money, or at least they don’t make as much money. Instead of pointing fingers at the Academy and Oscar, we should be boycotting Hollywood and the filmmaking industry for making and promoting movies white are 95+% white instead of making racially diverse films. As has been pointed out here, this is an extreme problem, mainly perpetuated through “good business” practices…a modern capitalist version of Jim Crow.
*It should be noted that ABC also airs the Oscars, presenting a possible conflict of interest
David Oyelowo
David Oyelowo, star of last year’s famously snubbed Selma, has been vocal about this year’s lack of diversity. His key soundbite is “For 20 opportunities to celebrate actors of color, actresses of color, to be missed last year is one thing; for that to happen again this year is unforgivable.” But, he actually went deeper. Take it away:
The reason why the Oscars are so important is because it is the zenith, it is the epitome, it is the height of celebration of artistic endeavor within the filmmaking community. We grow up aspiring, dreaming, longing to be accepted into that august establishment because it is the height of excellence. I would like to walk away and say it doesn’t matter, but it does, because that acknowledgement changes the trajectory of your life, your career, and the culture of the world we live in.
He also reiterated the note from The View that we live in a world where the biggest film in the world (Star Wars) is led by a black man (and a white woman), and was displaced by a film with two black men (Ride Along 2). There is no excuse for the lack of opportunity afforded to diverse movies.
Quincy Jones
7-time nominee music producer Quincy Jones was asked to present a music award with Pharrell and Common. After the nominations, Jones may actually turn down the opportunity. Addressing the National Association of Television Program Executives, Quincy stated that he requested five minutes to address the lack of diversity, or else he’s turning them down.
Quincy Jones isn’t just an average nominee, he’s also a pioneer in Hollywood politics. He was also the first African American board member, he was the musical director and conductor in 1971, and the first to receive the Academy’s Humanitarian Award. Regarding the boycott, he stated “You can boycott or you can fix it.”
Steve McQueen and Lupita Nyong’o
Two Academy Award winners for 2013’s 12 Years A Slave have, so far, been less verbose than the above Hollywood stars but expressed many of the same disbeliefs. McQueen briefly stated that there is no excuse to not be making movies with diverse stars. Lupita posted to her Instagram that she stands with her peers “calling for change in expanding the stories that are told and the recognition of the people who tell them.”
Various White Actors
Dustin Hoffman stated that this nomination field was just another example of America’s subliminal racism that spreads to the violence in the streets.
Michael Keaton echoed Whoopi, saying that the Academy wasn’t being “maliciously prejudicial” just “possibly out of touch.”
George Clooney expressed his dismay, saying “I think that African Americans have a real fair point that the industry isn’t representing them well enough. I think that’s absolutely true.” He added “But honestly, there should be more opportunity than that. There should be 20 or 30 or 40 films of the quality that people would consider for the Oscars. By the way, we’re talking about African Americans. For Hispanics, it’s even worse. We need to get better at this. We used to be better at it.”
Cheryl Boone-Isaacs
Cheryl Boone-Isaacs, African-American female President of the Academy, took to Twitter to make her Official statement about the lack of diversity. As noted last week, Boone-Isaacs announced an A2020 plan at the Governor’s Awards, but, much like the plans of so many presidential candidates, the specifics of that plan remain undetailed. In the Twitter post, she restated “The Academy is taking drastic steps to alter the makeup of our membership.” She added, “As many of you know, we have implemented changes to diversify our membership in the last four years. But the change is not coming as fast as we would like. We need to do more, and better, and more quickly.”
Rumor has it that these changes may come at a board meeting scheduled for next week, and may include drastic changes like membership being restricted to people who have worked in the past 10 years (currently, membership is for life). But, for now, this is what we’re left with. Boone-Isaacs is in a tough spot, frustrated by the people she represents, but wishing they were more willing to be open.
Chris Rock
Yet another controversial element of this year’s ceremony is that Chris Rock had been slated to host prior to the primarily white nominations. Since the nominations, 50 Cent and Tyrese Gibson have added to the voices calling for Rock to drop out of his hosting duties. Rock, for his part, hasn’t had much to say on the topic beyond a cynical Tweet calling the Oscars “The White BET Awards.” (Even then, noted white guy Sam Smith won Best New Artist at the BETs last year…)