14 winners in 87 years
Forty acting nominees in two years of Academy Awards and none of them are black. Actress Jada Pinkett-Smith and director Spike Lee announced a boycott shortly after the announcement of the nominees for the 88th Academy Awards. Will Smith will join his wife in the boycott. Rapper 50 Cent and singer-actor Tyrese then urged Chris Rock to withdraw as host of the awards.
But Whoopi Goldberg is against the boycott, as it would hurt Rock, who is only the second black person to host the academy. Goldberg also said that the lack of diversity in the nominees is not the fault of the academy but the movie industry as a whole. Clueless actress Stacy Dash, an AfricanAmerican, became a trending topic in Twitter last week after she said that if black people want real integration, then maybe it’s high time the BET (Black Entertainment Television) and the Black History Month were eradicated. The statement didn’t sit well with a lot of African-Americans including BET.
The biggest Hollywood names are talking about the lack of diversity in the Oscars and the movie industry as a whole, not just African-American celebrities. Oscar-winner George Clooney even expanded the issue to include the Hispanics, whom he said, have experienced worse. Oscarwinner Reese Witherspoon wished the academy had a more diverse voting membership. Academy member and filmmaker Michael Moore already announced that he, too is boycotting the Oscars.
Oscar nominee Mark Ruffalo, whose film Spotlight is also up for best picture, also considered boycotting the awards ceremony on Feb. 28 but quickly changed his mind. He will attend the Oscars in support of the victims of clergy sexual abuse, which is what Spotlight is about. “I do support the Oscar Ban movement’s position that the nominations do not reflect the diversity of our community,” Ruffalo told The Associated Press.
Only 44 African-American people have received acting nominations since the first Oscars was held in 1929. There are 20 acting nominations every year, five for every acting category: best actor, best actress, best supporting actor and best supporting actress. Only 14 black actors (15 wins since Denzel Washington won twice) have come out winners from 1,740 nominees in the last 87 years.