Chris Rock tackles diversity head-on in Oscars monologue

Chris Rock’s opening monologue at the 2016 Oscars was a revelation: It was amusing, it was edgy, and it addressed Hollywood’s race problem without letting liberals off the hook. “But I realized they’re going to have the Oscars anyway, and the last thing I need is to lose another job to Kevin Hart”. “You would all be watching Neil Patrick Harris right now”.

And this: There were no protests in the ’50s of the ’60s when black actors were rarely nominated, he noted.

The Awards began with a pre-taped montage showing highlights from the year’s films, including clips from movies that were snubbed. Last year he’s in 12 Years A Slave, hates black people; this year he’s in Straight Outta Compton, loves black people.

“This film gave a voice to survivors, and this Oscar amplifies that voice, which we hope will become a choir that will resonate all the way to the Vatican”, producer Michael Sugar said in his acceptance speech.

Best Director went to Alejandro G Inarritu, who said, “Let’s make the colour of our skin as irrelevant as the length of our hair”. “You know, when your grandmother is swinging from the tree, it’s really hard to care about best documentary foreign short”. The joke was met with visible discomfort from several white audience members.

“Making “The Revenant” was about man’s relationship to the natural world, the world that we collectively felt in 2015 as the hottest year in reported history – our production needed to move to the southern tip of this planet just to be able to find snow”, DiCaprio said.

Chris also called for black actors to receive the same opportunities as their white counterparts, saying: “It’s not about boycotting anything, we want opportunities. I wasn’t invited”, said Rock, who said he’d been urged to quit after the nominations were announced. “It’s kind of like the Def Oscar Jam tonight!” We all here tonight feel like winners.

In a more lighthearted moment, Rock said they should just have separate acting categories for minorities: “Just have black categories like Best Black Friend”. Hollywood is sorority racist. You need to have black categories. “It’s like, ‘We like you, Wanda, but you’re not a Kappa.’ That’s how Hollywood is”. After, Rock took the stage in a tux with a white jacket and black trousers. “There’s things that happen in Star Wars that are more believable than things that happen in Rocky”. Rocky is a science fiction movie!