Chris Rock comments on #OscarsSoWhite during Oscars opening monologue

“I’m here at the Academy Awards, otherwise known as the white People’s Choice Awards”, said Rock nearly immediately after walking out on stage.

After coming up empty in several previous Academy Award nominations, Leonardo DiCaprio is the odds on favourite to finally collect his Oscar.

Last year, host Neil Patrick Harris said, “Welcome to the 87th Oscars”. As a producer of The Wolf Of Wall Street, DiCaprio was also nominated in the Best Picture category, but the film lost out to 12 Years A Slave. “It’s not enough to just listen and agree”.

“Let us not take this planet for granted; I do not take tonight for granted”.

But he was also critical of actors who vowed to boycott the awards and those who urged him to quit as host.

Actress Jada Pinkett-Smith announced in January she would not attend the show due to its lack of black nominees; Rock countered by saying Pinkett-Smith was a TV star, and she wasn’t exactly invited to the show to begin with. Rock addressed the calls to boycott (“Why is it only unemployed people tell you to boycott?”) to Oscar’s long history of resistance to black nominees. “This year the “In Memoriam” package is just going to be black people who were shot by the cops on the way to the movies!” An unidentified woman shouts as demonstrators, including Rev. Al Sharpton, second from right, protest during a rally prior to the Academy Awards ceremony, Sunday, Feb. 28, 2016, in the Hollywood section of Los Angeles in sup… “Is Hollywood racist?” he asked rhetorically. “It’s like, ‘We like you, Rhonda, but you’re not a Kappa'”.

Later, Rock said, “We want opportunity”.

Rock questioned why the 88th edition of the Oscars drew so much controversy, guessing that black nominees were similarly absent most years. He added: “You guys get the great parts all the time”.

Rock devoted his entire monologue to the controversy, hitting the right balance between finding humor in an uncomfortable situation while not losing sight of its importance. But what about the black actors? One of those years, Sidney Poitier didn’t put out a movie …

“The big thing is it’s nearly 100% white men who decide what gets made and what doesn’t get made”, Lee said.

“It’s not fair Will was this good in Concussion and wasn’t nominated”. He said the problem would one day be solved.