The Oscar nominations have been revealed, and everyone is talking about this year’s nods, snubs, and most importantly—the racial and gender makeup of the Academy and its nominees.
Of course. Here we go again. We’re barely over this weekend’s total freakout over the various combinations of skin color and genitalia that won top rights at the Golden Globes; you’d think we’d be given at least a week to recuperate. But no:
That’s right, ladies and gentlemen. The internet spent an entire day lobbing hate at a group of talented entertainers whose only crime is the relative paleness of their skin:
For only the second time in nearly two decades, the 20 Academy Awards acting nominations went to a group made up entirely of white actors and actresses.Among the notable snubs was David Oyelowo, who received praise for his turn as the late Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. in Selma.In 2011, the 20 nominees also were entirely white. Before that, one has to go back to 1998 for an all-white acting group.The all-white nominees list comes at a time when Hollywood is fielding criticism for not doing enough to promote diversity in filmmaking. And just last month, Sony Pictures co-chairman Amy Pascal and producer Scott Rudin were apologizing for leaked emails that appeared to be racially insensitive. Rudin was nominated this morning for producing best picture nominee The Grand Budapest Hotel.
There’s even a hashtag: #OscarsSoWhite:
The institutional left, led by General Emeritus Al Sharpton, is out in force to criticize the talents skin color of the various nominees:
Rev. Al Sharpton — who formed a Hollywood diversity committee in response to the leaked emails — reacted angrily to the nominees list in a statement released in the wake of this morning’s announcement: “The lack of diversity in today’s Oscar nominations is appalling. … With all of the talent in Selma and other Black movies this year, it is hard to believe that we have less diversity in the nominations today than in recent history.” Sharpton added, “The movie industry is like the Rocky Mountains, the higher you get, the whiter it gets.”
Twitter, of course, had a field day with this:
It’s 2014, and here we are judging people not by the content of their character—or the quality of their performances—but by the color of their skin. Isn’t there a nominee for Best Picture that deals with this sort of thing?
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