Won once, so it can’t be racist: Whoopi Goldberg on Oscar row

My question is: if there were more black actors in the Academy, would that have assured David Oyelowo’s nomination? This has happened in the past and this is one of those times.

Spike Lee said because black actors were snubbed again, he was boycotting the Academy Awards gala next month. But what about all of those people that were elected to the Academy because they are skilled, but who never got an Oscar nomination?

While Spike Lee, Tyrese, Snoop Dogg and 50 Cent have urged a boycott, rapper/actor Ice Cube appeared on Graham Norton last week where he called the boycott “ridiculous”.

However, there is undoubtedly an issue in Hollywood with whitewashing and a lack of diversity, but boycotting the Oscars will not do too much to change that. As a member who has stepped partially away from the industry, it feels like someone like me is being victimized. There has also been an ongoing debate on whether host Chris Rock should step down.

Diversity has become a hot-button issue in Hollywood in the run-up to the 2016 Academy Awards, after only white actors were nominated for major awards. That film is really the only prominently African-American film that got a decent Oscar nod. Mo’Nique took home the best supporting actress prize for Precious, as did black screenwriter Geoffrey Fletcher for best adapted screenplay. Both Paul Winfield and Cicely Tyson were nominated for Best Actor and Best Actress. Over his 25-year film career, The Revenant’s Leonardo DiCaprio has been nominated for four acting Oscars (plus a producer nod for The Wolf of Wall Street two years ago).

There have been many solutions offered up to “fix” the Academy, and it sounds like they’re moving in the right direction to freshen things up a bit with their almost 100 year old institution.

The problem is that to invite minorities and women into the academy, there needs to be a sufficient amount of women and minorities working in the film industry. “That’s insane”, Matt Damon said about the Academy adding more diverse members to their crew. Cheryl Boone Isaacs, the first African American to serve as Academy president, told the Associated Press in January 2015 that the group had “made greater strides than we ever have in the past toward becoming a more diverse and inclusive organization through admitting new members and more inclusive classes of members”. This will help mold new members and allow them to take place in the voting process as soon as 2017, making their self-proposed goal of 2020 more feasible and not pie in the sky. In addition, members will receive lifetime voting rights after three ten-year terms; or if they have won or been nominated for an Academy Award.

The same standards will be applied retroactively to current members.

Member Stephen Geller writes that the 10-year policy is “illogical, irrelevant and unwittingly insulting”.

Those who don’t qualify as active will be moved to emeritus status, which includes “all the benefits of membership except voting”, per the FAQ.

Upon review of your request, you can be reinstated as an active member with voting rights.

The Oscars have received a lot of criticism in the past two weeks for the lack of diversity in their nominees, as well as their voting methods, to which they responded with a plan to overhaul the system.

According to Los Angeles Times, Oscar voters are almost 94% Caucasian and 77% male, with blacks account for only 2% of the academy, and Latinos less than 2%.

The Board of Governors voted unanimously to make “crucial changes to diversify the membership”.

Since then, the academy, particularly under Boone Isaacs, has stepped up efforts to bolster diversity.

So the Academy will rectify the issue in the future but presently, there’s nothing that can be done?