The Academy Response to Being Called Racists

The so-called whitewash is little more than a two-year blip in a decade where more and more black stars have been gaining recognition. And this isn’t the only example where the Academy appears to have aggressively ignored the contribution of black artists and, in wider terms, people of color.

After members of the Academy neglected to nominate black actors in any of the major acting categories for the second consecutive year, Davis says there are some questions Academy voters should be asking themselves like, “How many Black films are being produced every year?”

Yes, all those films (two of which flopped) could have been nominated.

This has caused staunch criticism of the awards. The director Spike Lee has announced that he will be boycotting the awards (yep, he missed out this year, as you might have guessed) and so too has the actress Jada Pinkett Smith (Will Smith’s missus).

“I think when you make race the issue, it can divide people even further, and that’s what I worry about”, Miller added. You can see the full video here.

The filmmaker, who received an honorary Oscar at the Governor’s Ball in November (15), also insisted the boss behind the awards ceremony, Cheryl Boone Isaacs, has been trying to make changes to the voting system long before the #OscarsSoWhite campaign was launched following the controversial nominations announcement earlier this month (Jan16).

“I’d like to acknowledge the wonderful work of this year’s nominees”. It’s No Coincidence I’m Writing This As We Celebrate The 30th Anniversary Of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr’s Birthday.

“The Academy is taking dramatic steps to alter the makeup of our membership”, Isaacs said in a statement on Monday. In the coming days and weeks will conduct a review of our membership recruitment in order to bring about much-needed diversity in our 2016 class and beyond. But for my part I think that I have to protect and fight for the ideals that make our country and our Hollywood community great.

So when Chris Rock calls out the Academy for its insularity on the industry’s biggest night, I’ll be sitting in the amen corner of my living room cheering. Not everyone is onboard with the call to boycott though.

The 50-year-old two-time Oscar nominee also gave her opinion on the push for scheduled host Chris Rock to join the boycott and forgo his hosting duties.

Last year, Davis became the first black actress to win an Emmy for best actress in a leading role on a TV drama, for her performance in How to Get Away With Murder. This “New Hollywood”, as it came to be known, kicked off with movies like Bonnie and Clyde and Easy Rider, and was made up of filmmakers with names like Coppola, Scorsese, DePalma, and Polanski.

No blacks were nominated for acting Oscars this year, or last year.

Davis knows something about breaking down racial barriers in Hollywood. “You can change the Academy, but if there are no Black films being produced, what is there to vote for?”

However, that doesn’t mean that people shouldn’t protest the Academy’s actions.

“If you think back 10 years ago, the Academy was doing a better job”, Clooney said.

The belief that Hollywood consistently produces entertainment for the objective of advancing a very liberal agenda is widely accepted as fact, particularly among conservative Americans, and that perception is reality to those who accuse Hollywood of promoting a liberal agenda.