By Nicholas Whitt |Staff Writer|
Only white actors are worthy of acknowledgement, according to the Oscars. A total of 20 actors were nominated for this year’s Oscars award ceremony and all of them were white.
A Los Angeles Times study found that academy voters are nearly 94 percent Caucasian and 77 percent male. Blacks are about 2 percent of the academy, and Latinos are less than 2 percent.
When you have this type of ratio, there is no way to stray from allowing only white actors to be nominated, an excuse that shouldn’t exist.
In fact, to become an academy member, two academy members have to sponsor you, as well as including other requirements that must be passed first, which makes the Academy seem like a cult.
“For Too Many Years When The Oscars Nominations Are Revealed, My Office Phone Rings Off The Hook With The Media Asking Me My Opinion About The Lack Of African-Americans And This Year Was No Different,” African-American film director Spike Lee wrote in an Instagram post.
Every year is just a new year for the older generation of voters to make sure only certain individuals are given credit where credit is due—just look at Leonardo DiCaprio.
“The Academy has the right to acknowledge whomever they choose, to invite whomever they choose, and now I think that it’s our responsibility now to make the change,” said actress Jada Pinkett Smith, known for her role in “Gotham” on Fox.
Even presidential candidate Hillary Clinton took a swing at the Academy.
“The Academy has to catch up with our reality,” said Clinton in an interview with aol.com on the campaign trail in Iowa.
Clinton is correct; they need to upgrade on how they vote or run the Oscars.
However, some individuals disagree with Smith.
“I find it ironic that somebody who has made their living and has made millions and millions of dollars from the very people that you’re talking about boycotting just because you didn’t get a nomination, just because you didn’t win?” said Janet Hubert, who played the original Vivian Banks (“Aunt Viv”) on “The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air.”
Hubert might be correct in a sense, but in reality, it’s not the idea of them gaining more money for what they have created.
It is the fact that a minority group is finally speaking out, irritated at how the Academy diminishes the power of their work by ignoring their presence and achievements.
Only white actors being awarded for their hard work can cause aspiring artists or younger generations to lose ambition if they are not white.
This type of problem can lead individuals to have a negative mindset, making it seem only white people are the ones to have impact on others.
It is further creating the idea of no matter how hard you try, because you are not white you will never succeed.
“When the Academy that gives awards for entertainment bars the excellence of people of color, it leaves one with the notion that only white is right,” stated Andre Thompson, Internal Vice Chair of the Black Student Union from the University of California, San Diego.
The nominations in reality made the Oscars a sham, almost becoming a joke to even participate in the event.
Select actors are now refusing to attend and are also bashing the Oscars, including host Chris Rock.
Rock even tweeted about calling the Oscars, “The White BET Awards.”
We should no longer allow for the Academy’s idealistic mindset to determine whose achievements are worthy of acknowledgement.
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