The Oscars' black and white divide

One of the most awaited movie awards ceremony, the Oscars has been in the eye of a storm recently over lack of diversity among this year's nominees. For the second consecutive year, no Afro-American actors were nominated in any of the four acting categories or for direction. The list has raked up the issue of racism with many voicing outrage over the same.Actor George Clooney added to the growing protest and said in an interview, 'I think around 2004, certainly there were black nominees ' like Don Cheadle, Morgan Freeman.' 'And all of a sudden, you feel like we're moving in the wrong direction. There were nominations left off the table,' he added.
Other celebrities like Lupita Nyong'o, David Oyelowo, Jada Pinkett Smith and Spike Lee vented against the white Oscars as people of colour failed to get nominated. Academy Award winner Nyong'o said she was 'disappointed' by 'the lack on inclusion' and was joining in calling for change in expanding the stories that are told and recognition of the people who tell them. Meanwhile, growing calls for a boycott of the Academy Awards are forcing stars to choose sides and threatening to throw the movie industry's biggest night of the year into turmoil'
Spike Lee and Jada Pinkett Smith to ditch The Oscars in support of #OscarsTooWhite movement
IT'S A BIGGER ISSUE'
Pinkett Smith, who has said she wouldn't attend or watch the Feb 28 ceremony, can't stop expressing her displeasure over this black-white divide. She said, 'It isn't really about the Oscars.' She had earlier posted a video which helped prompt calls for a boycott of the awards show. In another video, she said, 'This whole Oscar controversy isn't really about the Oscars.' Her husband Will Smith was left out of the race for his role in Concussion. She said her plea was about Afro-Americans taking back their power in an industry that doesn't value people of colour. Clooney also said the issue was bigger than the Oscars nominations as enough representation was lacking in the industry for them. '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 said.
Actor Mark Ruffalo, nominated for Best Supporting Actor for Spotlight, spoke of his dilemma over the ceremony in a TV interview, 'Yes, I am weighing it. I woke up in the morning thinking, what is the right way of doing it. If you look at Martin Luther King's legacy, what he was saying was, the good people who don't act, are much worse than the wrong doers, who are purposely not acting and don't know the right way.' He added in another interview, 'I think it's terrible. And I have a lot of sympathy for it (the boycott) and I completely understand why people are protesting.'
PRESSURE ON CHRIS ROCK NOT TO HOST THE OSCARS
There is a lot of pressure on actor Chris Rock to join the boycott. Rapper 50 Cent urged on a photo-sharing site, 'Chris, please do not do the Oscar awards. You mean a lot man, don't do it.'
WHEN: The 88th Annual Oscars are set to take place on February 28.
WHO SAID WHAT
-David Oyelowo: This institution doesn't reflect its president and it doesn't reflect this room.
-George Clooney: 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, Academy president: I am both heartbroken and frustrated about the lack of inclusion. This is a difficult, but important conversation, and it's time for big changes. In 2016, the mandate is inclusion in all of its facets: gender, race, ethnicity and sexual orientation. We recognise the very real concerns of our community, and I so appreciate all of you who have reached out to me in our effort to move forward together.
-Whoopi Goldberg: So I'm not going to boycott but I'm going to continue to b**tch, as I have, all year round because I'm tired of seeing movies where no one is represented except a bit of the population.
-Ricky Gervais posted on his microblog: 'If I were @chrisrock, I wouldn't be considering boycotting The Oscars. I'd be thinking 'this s**t is live. I can do some serious damage'.'
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