“Efforts to correct this pervasive issue within the Academy Awards are long overdue and since no tangible actions have been taken, a boycott seems like the appropriate course of action”.
Advertisement
Nyong’o said the Oscars should be “a diverse reflection of the best of what our art has to offer today”.
The Oscar boycott just got political.
Cheryl Boone Isaccs, the African-American president of the Academy, on Monday, pledged big but unspecific changes and a review of the way members are recruited.
“In our country, there’s a subliminal racism…” There was a push for more inclusion after last year’s infamous snub of the civil rights movie “Selma”, with a record 322 invitations sent to join the academy.
Two-time Oscar nominee Viola Davis has added her voice to the ongoing row over diversity at the Academy Awards. The 85-year old Best Actress nominee for 45 Years said that to boycott the Oscars for it being “so white” is in turn actually racist against white people, reported The Hollywood Reporter.
After members of the Academy neglected to nominate black actors in any of the major acting categories for the second consecutive year, Davis says there are some questions Academy voters should be asking themselves like, “How many Black films are being produced every year?”. How are they being distributed? I would also make the argument, I don’t think it’s a problem of who you’re picking as much as it is: How many options are available to minorities in film, particularly in quality films?
What could very well result, as soon as next year (and maybe only next year), is the bestowing of Oscar nominations upon so-so motion pictures with a majority black cast, as well as for the people of color appearing in them, just to placate people such as filmmaker Spike Lee, who got this boycott business started earlier this month.
And Davis concluded her speech, discussing the longtime hot topic of the gender pay gap, and how it disproportionately affects women of color. “The problem is the people who can be helping to make movies that have Blacks and Latinos and women and all that-that money doesn’t come to you because the idea is that there is no place for Black movies”.
While Viola won’t be attending this year’s Oscar since she’ll be on much-deserved vacation, she does believe that it’s Chris Rock’s choice if he decides to host or not – not the celebrities pressuring him. Davis’s most recent nomination was for The Help, a drama about a young white girl coming to realize that her maids are, you know, human.
John Singleton, Oscar-nominated for directing the 1991 film “Boyz n the Hood”, said nominations for the industry’s most prestigious awards are a lottery.
Advertisement
“We are light years away”.
