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Spike Lee boycotts Oscars over all-white nominees
Acclaimed filmmaker Spike Lee asks if black actors can’t act after an Academy Awards snub. – AFP pic, January 19, 2016.Acclaimed filmmaker Spike Lee said yesterday he was boycotting the Oscars next month because for the second year in a row all the nominees in the actor categories were white.
Separately, black actress Jada Pinkett Smith said she, too, would not be attending the February 28 star-studded ceremony.
Lee, an African American and previous Oscar winner, posted an open letter to the president and board of governors of the Academy Awards on Instagram.
The post was accompanied by a photo of Martin Luther King, on the US holiday honouring the murdered civil rights leader.
“How is it possible for the 2nd consecutive year all 20 contenders under the actor category are white? And let’s not even get into the other branches. 40 white actors in 2 years and no flava at all. We can’t act?!”
Lee, who won an Oscar last year for his lifetime achievements as a filmmaker and actor, blamed the executives who run Hollywood studios for the absence of minorities in Oscar-contending roles.
“People, the truth is we ain’t in those rooms and until minorities are, the Oscar nominees will remain lilly white,” said Lee, who is well known for his outspoken comments.
He suggests that Hollywood follow the lead of the National Football League, which requires that minorities be interviewed for head coach and senior executive positions when those are being filled.
“It’s worth the effort or it will be the same old hi-jinks,” he said.
The Academy on Thursday announced the nominees for this year’s awards, hosted by black comedian Chris Rock.
No sooner than the nominations had been announced, then the glaring absence of black actors or directors set social media abuzz under the hashtag #OscarsSoWhite.
In a video on Facebook, Smith, the wife of actor-singer Will Smith, said: “Begging for acknowledgement or even asking diminishes dignity and diminishes power, and we are a dignified people and powerful.”
“Hey Chris,” she added, in apparent reference to the host.
“I won’t be at the Academy Awards and I won’t be watching. But I can’t think of a better man to do the job at hand this year than you, my friend. Good luck.” – AFP, January 19, 2016.
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