Opinion: The Oscars dissappoint when it comes to diversity

Richie Pannell, Staff Reporter

The Oscars, “the white people’s choice awards” as Chris Rock calls it, is a long-lived tradition of giving out awards for different categories of filmmaking and outstanding movies. They have been giving out awards for 88 years but now major problems have surfaced that need to be addressed.

The most recent Oscars was the first one I watched  and I was embarrassed that this was Hollywood’s idea of an awards show. I had heard that people were boycotting the show because of the many people of color who didn’t get nominations or even invitations for the ceremony, but I needed to see for myself. When I looked at the audience I realized that most of that was true. A majority of the audience was white with a few people of color, going along with what Chris Rock said.

Chris Rock was an amazing host and used his time on stage to point out the problems with the process and the ceremony. He addressed its problems with racism and sexism in a way that everyone could understand. From the moment he went on stage he was ready to slam the Oscars with facts and controversial jokes. He did so in a way a stand up comedian would, walking along the stage and laughing at his own jokes. He was completely natural. He bravely went out on stage and shamed the academy’s way of doing things.

Chris Rock isn’t a person who would shy away from a controversial topic. When he hosted “Saturday Night Live” he gave a monologue about how he went to a anti-gun convention and had death threats on his social media pages afterwards. He basically said in his monologue that you can’t be reckless with a gun just like you can’t be reckless with a car. He brought up so many great points that just aren’t being listened to.

The academy isn’t going to change how they do things. I think they put Chris Rock on just to get it over with. They really made sure that you listened to Rock’s speech but I don’t think it meant anything to the people putting the ceremony together.

Chris Rock brought up points about how there have been 88 Oscars and even with all the times they have done them. There have been 71 other events with no black nominees. I think that to say that nonwhite actors and movies have never gotten any better or been as good as white actors and movies is a total lie. This shows that there is a way that racism exists in Hollywood and in the Academy and there is no denying that fact.