Black Actors Call For Oscars Boycott Over Lack Of Diversity

Spike Lee, Jada Pinkett Smith call for Oscars boycott over lack of diversity

Chris Rock calls the Oscars the 'white BET Awards'

Calls for a boycott of the Academy Awards are growing over the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences' second straight year of mostly white nominees, as Spike Lee and Jada Pinkett Smith each said Monday that they will not attend this year's ceremony.

In a lengthy Instagram post, Lee said he "cannot support" the "lily white" Oscars.

Jada tweeted 'people of color' are rarely recognized for our artistic accomplishments. Should people of color refrain from participating all together?

I can understand why some people might get upset, but do you think this is going too far?

How is it alright for there to be racially exclusive awards (BET), but if a NON racially exclusive awards just happens to not choose Black actors, despite having done so in the past, people get all up in arms?

I thought this was suppose to be about acting, not skin color and the perception of entitlement.

a reply to: Konduit

Well, you know....

...kids now get trophies for showing up at organized sports games...not for winning...

And affirmative action...we all know how well that works...


Why the hell not. Let's just unilaterally pick winners based off of skin color...

In everything. Not just the Oscars.

a reply to: Konduit

I can't help but believe that omission of artist of color from the Oscars 2 years in a row is a purposeful statement. What it's saying, I have no idea. But you can bet, no pun intended, what ever message the Academy is sending, it's politically motivated...imho, of course.

I think every year that there is not a black or other minority nominee in a major category they add a new award strictly for minority nominees from any category and call it the Affirmative Action Oscar for a Major Contribution from a Minority.

And they can also do a retrospective like the do for In Memoriam, only it can be called the "Year in Diversity" celebrating those who contribute.

a reply to: Konduit
Pshaw! Lack of diversity! If you want to see lack of diversity, compare how many American Indian actors that are nominated, for example, to how many black actors. It's not that there aren't any Indian actors or even that they're not good. Lack of diversity. *chuckles*

a reply to: Skid Mark

Latino actors and actresses.

a reply to: Konduit

I thought this was suppose to be about acting, not skin color and the perception of entitlement.

It is. That's the problem. But it shows the glaring absurdity of "diversity", namely, that skin color isn't a valid unit of measure when it comes to skill, performance or value.

I suppose being paid millions of dollars is not good enough anymore.

Competitive awards have no business in Art.

I heard this earlier and find it very perplexing. I'm not sure what to think. Denzel Washington is nominated with almost every movie he makes because he is AWESOME.

So, I don't know. I'm really confused about this.

Honestly, the quality of everything to do with Hollywood no matter what ethnicity we're talking about has fallen off. I am waiting for it to pull out of its doldrums and experience a new Renaissance, but outside of a very few, filmmakers seem to have a forgotten what storytelling is as much as actors and actresses seem to have forgotten that their job is to portray a character so well we forget who they are. Instead, we see them pretending to be this or that person.

originally posted by: HUMBLEONE
Competitive awards have no business in Art.

But they love them! It's kinda like their Nobel prize or something. Nothing wrong with that.

a reply to: Konduit

Well Spike Lee hasn't made a good movie in the last 20 years or maybe ever so I'm sure he wasn't invited anyways.

Jada Pinkett Smith was last in Magic Mike and a voice actor for Madagascar....

I heard the lead actor in Creed was really good but I haven't see it yet. I dunno I say let them boycott and cry.

They have an entire network dedicated to African Americans and nobody complains. What other race has an entire network dedicated to them and an award show where only one race is represented.

Meh.

a reply to: ketsuko
Those, too. Then, there are Asians.

originally posted by: nullafides
a reply to: Konduit

Well, you know....

No, I dont, please enlighten me.

...kids now get trophies for showing up at organized sports games...not for winning...

Where does that happen? Mine doesn't. Is this something you read on the internet?

And affirmative action...we all know how well that works...

How does it work exactly?

Why the hell not. Let's just unilaterally pick winners based off of skin color...
In everything. Not just the Oscars.

Remember the Titans?

So white folks should boycott the Olympic games track and field events because black folks dominate those and this is unfair.

This is their precious black logic.

a reply to: JDmOKI


Let's play find the minority : www.cmt.com...
Hmmm, looks like the same premise as BET. Both owned by white men too.

Actually I see white people complaining on ATS about BET a lot. Here's an experiment you can perform: Turn on your tv and quickly flip through the channels. How many whites? How many non whites?

there are very few out there that can actually act...become a different character.
most of what i see are the same people, being the same person..but..saying different words.

This is rich.

Not only do these pretentious D-bags get paid millions of dollars to play make believe.

But they hold dozens of absurdly expensive egotistical masturbation fests every year to give themselves awards.

And now some of them are crying because they didn't get the amount of attention they wanted.

Cry me an F'n river.