Chris Rock calls Oscars ‘White People’s Choice Awards’ in opening monologue

Rock, a veteran of “Saturday Night Live”, previously hosted the Oscars in 2005, when he also had unleashed pointed humor but race was noticeably less of an open issue. From his first words to his farewell remarks, he brought it stage front and center, and kept it there.

“I don’t think the Vatican or the archdiocese will necessarily do more”, said Robert Costello, 54, who was sexually abused by a Boston priest from the late 1960s through 1976.

“They’re not going to cancel the Oscars because I quit, you know? You’d be watching Neil Patrick Harris right now”. “It’s not enough to just listen and agree”. “Let us not take this planet for granted, I do not take this night for granted”.

He suggested that Jada Pinkett Smith joined the boycott by African Americans because her husband, actor and rapper Will Smith, was not nominated for “Concussion”. I’m sure there were years in the ’50s and ’60s where black people didn’t get nominated.

“Why? Because we had real things to protest”, he said.

“Too busy being raped and lynched to care about who won best cinematographer”. Some people call it Creed, but I call it Black Rocky.

Turning more philosophical, he asked: “Is Hollywood racist?”.

First came the orchestrated version of “Hollywood Swinging”, the raucous 1973 rhythm-and-blues/funk standard by black pop icons Kool & the Gang, followed by “Fight the Power”, the in-your-face hip-hop classic by Public Enemy that was the theme song for the 1989 Spike Lee provocation, “Do the Right Thing”. It’s like, “We like you, Rhonda, but you’re not a Kappa.’ That’s how Hollywood is”.

“But things are changing, we got a black Rocky this year”.

Rock then got serious: “It’s not about boycotting, we just want more opportunities. All you guys get great parts all the time”.

Tap here to read a full transcript of his opening monologue. In one of the best of several comic bits sprinkled through the show, actress Angela Bassett offered a “Black History Month Minute” paying tribute to a “black” actor – the very white Jack Black. In one, Rock himself was an astronaut left up on Mars, a la Matt Damon in “The Martian”.

“They don’t hire black people … and they’re the nicest white people ever”.

Even with these and other openly progressive displays intent on pushing Hollywood forward, the Oscar ceremonies ultimately seemed to drag on as long as they always have, with acceptance speeches spilling over their allotted time despite this year’s “scrolling device” across the bottom of the screen that was supposed to list all the people winners wanted to thank. He said the problem would one day be solved. “Everyone in Hollywood has a role to play” in diversifying the ranks. In all 20 acting slots, the nominations were white as all get-out, leading to boycotts threatened and changes made within the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. This year, he’s crying at Eazy-E’s funeral (in Straight Outta Compton).

Such a sparsely-awarded best picture victor has not appeared since 1952′s The Greatest Show On Earth.