Smiths are "boycotting the Oscars" - Racism related topic

Forums › Off topic › Smiths are "boycotting the Oscars" - Racism related topic

1 | 2 | 3 | 4

17149 posts

Uber Geek

Lifetime subscriber

#1477619 24-Jan-2016 06:22

Academy annouces changes:

"In a unanimous vote Thursday night (1/21), the Board of Governors of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences approved a sweeping series of substantive changes designed to make the Academy’s membership, its governing bodies, and its voting members significantly more diverse. The Board’s goal is to commit to doubling the number of women and diverse members of the Academy by 2020."

http://www.oscars.org/news/academy-takes-historic-action-increase-diversity

The current makeup is 97% non-african american apparently, and average age of the vote is 63.

JWR

821 posts

Ultimate Geek

#1477620 24-Jan-2016 06:45

gzt: Academy annouces changes:

"In a unanimous vote Thursday night (1/21), the Board of Governors of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences approved a sweeping series of substantive changes designed to make the Academy’s membership, its governing bodies, and its voting members significantly more diverse. The Board’s goal is to commit to doubling the number of women and diverse members of the Academy by 2020."

http://www.oscars.org/news/academy-takes-historic-action-increase-diversity

The current makeup is 97% non-african american apparently, and average age of the vote is 63.

I do have to say that being non-African American and around 63 years of age, doesn't make you a bigot either.

MikeB4

18435 posts

Uber Geek

ID Verified

Trusted

#1477621 24-Jan-2016 06:54

Geektastic:
Racism is a perfectly natural response in the world and has been since man A hated man B because he was from another cave.

The modern idea that it can somehow be erased is doomed to failure.

This answer shows clearly that the Smiths are correct.

JWR

821 posts

Ultimate Geek

#1477626 24-Jan-2016 07:25

Before we allege racism, who should have been nominated - but wasn't?

I have read good reviews of 'Beast of no Nation" - including Idris Elba.

I haven't seen it yet. So no idea.

Any other options?

gzt

17149 posts

Uber Geek

Lifetime subscriber

#1477627 24-Jan-2016 07:33

networkn: There are a group of people who included Jada Pinkett Smith and now Will Smith (Supporting his wife's position) and a director, who have decided not to attend the Oscars, because, for the second year running, no black actors have received a nomination.

Reason was not stated specifically as far as I know has been assumed. Also only won twice ever by black actors ever.

I am wondering if this is ALSO a type of racism, because should nominations not be based on the skill and performance of the individual and NOT be a race matter? Just because there were no black actors nominated, does not automatically make the people who decide who gets nominated and who wins, racist to my thinking... It's possible they are, but it's not something that should be automatically assumed without significant additional evidence.

First, neither Smith has accused those people of racism as far as I know.

Second, it seems to be a common misconception that the best performance wins and therefore the outcome proves black performers are not good enough to win in this category for whatever reason. This misconception is a really bad result of this process. It is an evil result.

The reality is there is no requirement for an academy voter to view all films/performances before deciding to vote nominate. So, even in the case where an academy voter has perfect artistic judgement they can be completely unaware of an outstanding performance. Eg; they may unreasonably hate [insert genre] and not view films in that genre and miss the best performance ever.

Geektastic

17943 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

#1477719 24-Jan-2016 11:16

MikeB4:
Geektastic:

Racism is a perfectly natural response in the world and has been since man A hated man B because he was from another cave.

The modern idea that it can somehow be erased is doomed to failure.

This answer shows clearly that the Smiths are correct.

Or it shows that I am.

Geektastic

17943 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

#1477720 24-Jan-2016 11:16

JWR:

Before we allege racism, who should have been nominated - but wasn't?

I have read good reviews of 'Beast of no Nation" - including Idris Elba.

I haven't seen it yet. So no idea.

Any other options?

That guy in Star Wars?

gzt

17149 posts

Uber Geek

Lifetime subscriber

#1477786 24-Jan-2016 14:30

The Economist crunches the numbers:

But as usual the headline data does not tell the whole story:

"If all of the Guild’s members were equally likely to receive Oscar nominations, regardless of race, then over a two-year period 28 out of 40 nominations would be of white actors. The chances of no single person of colour being nominated across two ceremonies would be exceptionally small—even during a 15-year span, the odds of seeing at least one sequence of back-to-back whiteouts are around one in 100,000."

So it is clear something is going on, so what is the source of that issue? The Economist does not offer an answer for that one.

Imo there is a lot of lobbying behind the scenes for the Academy Awards votes and the major studios have a massive influence on nominations because of that. An Award is a type of advertising for a property and they really do want to use that to the best advantage. This can include hyping an actor they have a project with next year, so it is not necessarily a simple thing. Add to that they will not always get their way and there are many other influences.

Including for instance, directors. Some are very powerful and therefore very influential. So how about directors?

"The view behind the scenes is perhaps more revealing. Blacks really are much more under-represented in the director’s chair, where they account for 6% of directors of the top 600 films,"

The Economist does not look at studio executives at all.

As I demonstrated in an earlier example, under representation in a field does not itself indicate lack of available talent there may be other factors.

MikeB4

18435 posts

Uber Geek

ID Verified

Trusted

#1477800 24-Jan-2016 15:08

Geektastic:

MikeB4:
Geektastic:

Racism is a perfectly natural response in the world and has been since man A hated man B because he was from another cave.

The modern idea that it can somehow be erased is doomed to failure.

This answer shows clearly that the Smiths are correct.

Or it shows that I am.

No, racism needs to be erased, there is zero justification for it.

matisyahu

1623 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

#1477832 24-Jan-2016 16:49

JWR:

kawaii:

I think the best response I heard was from Ice Cube:

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2016/01/22/straight-outta-compton-s-ice-cube-oscar-boycott-talk-is-getting-ridiculous.html

“We don’t do movies for the industry,” he continued, gesturing at Hart beside him. “We do movies for the fans, for the people. And the industry, if they give you a trophy or not or pat you on the back or not, it’s nice but it’s not something you should dwell on.”

I personally am looking forward to watching Chi-Raq - something that you'll never see an award nor do I think Spike Lee gives a toss either.

I don't think racism is defined by how many Oscars you are nominated for.

Things like that are trivial.

I am sure most victims of racism are more worried about not getting shot (by police) on their way to and from work, worried about their kids education and prospects and many other things.

Given the number of good movies and actors that are overlooked I'm wondering why anyone would even care about the Oscars in the first place, they're about as relevant as the Time 'Man of the year' and believing it some sort of metric for social progress. Whether the Oscars are or aren't racist shouldn't be the question, the question I have is why should anyone give a crap whether someone receives an award or not given that the judgement is subjective yet some try to make out as if these were objective judgements.

"When the people are being beaten with a stick, they are not much happier if it is called 'the People's Stick'"

Geektastic

17943 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

#1477841 24-Jan-2016 17:14

MikeB4:

Geektastic:

MikeB4:
Geektastic:

Racism is a perfectly natural response in the world and has been since man A hated man B because he was from another cave.

The modern idea that it can somehow be erased is doomed to failure.

This answer shows clearly that the Smiths are correct.

Or it shows that I am.

No, racism needs to be erased, there is zero justification for it.

It won't ever be 'erased' and human nature and response does not necessarily require justification. It's perfectly human to not even be able to explain why a person dislikes another one.

Erasing it merely happens to be the idea of the week, so to speak - whereas as recently as 50 years ago it wasn't. It will shortly be back with a loud bang in Europe, I predict.

Geektastic

17943 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

#1477842 24-Jan-2016 17:15

kawaii:

JWR:

kawaii:

I think the best response I heard was from Ice Cube:

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2016/01/22/straight-outta-compton-s-ice-cube-oscar-boycott-talk-is-getting-ridiculous.html

“We don’t do movies for the industry,” he continued, gesturing at Hart beside him. “We do movies for the fans, for the people. And the industry, if they give you a trophy or not or pat you on the back or not, it’s nice but it’s not something you should dwell on.”

I personally am looking forward to watching Chi-Raq - something that you'll never see an award nor do I think Spike Lee gives a toss either.

I don't think racism is defined by how many Oscars you are nominated for.

Things like that are trivial.

I am sure most victims of racism are more worried about not getting shot (by police) on their way to and from work, worried about their kids education and prospects and many other things.

Given the number of good movies and actors that are overlooked I'm wondering why anyone would even care about the Oscars in the first place, they're about as relevant as the Time 'Man of the year' and believing it some sort of metric for social progress. Whether the Oscars are or aren't racist shouldn't be the question, the question I have is why should anyone give a crap whether someone receives an award or not given that the judgement is subjective yet some try to make out as if these were objective judgements.

Now that is very true!

MikeB4

18435 posts

Uber Geek

ID Verified

Trusted

#1477861 24-Jan-2016 17:42

Racism defies all logic, racists hate themselves.

gzt

17149 posts

Uber Geek

Lifetime subscriber

#1477877 24-Jan-2016 18:36

The NFL is an interesting case. Back in 2000 they had 67% black players and 6% black coaches.

There was a civil rights case against one or two NFL member teams because it seemed there was no way to break through into the senior coaching positions.

The resolution was interesting. An owner of a relatively progressive member team suggested the other member teams could just make sure to actually interview black candidates. This became the rule in the NFL association. The number of black coaches in the NFL hit 22% pretty quickly.

This situation could be seen as consistent with controlled research studies which found that employers rejected a disproportionate number of c.v's for interview simply because the only difference was a 'black sounding' name.

So this is kind of one step back from affirmative action. This NFL rule evened the playing field a bit for equality of opportunity.

J32

98 posts

Master Geek

#1477884 24-Jan-2016 18:43

Jada Pinkett Smith is not crying because black people are not recognized enough by the Hollywood Foreign Press, she is crying because her husband wasn't nominated for anything for his role in "Concussion".

She also published a video, where she talks about black people should do their own thing to pat themselves on the back. But hey if she really wanted more diversity she would stand up for Asians, Latinos and other ethnicity's, who have barely every been cast for a role in an Oscar worthy movie. If she had a real problem with it, she would talk about how Hollywood casts their roles, not bother with the Oscars.

I mean lets have a look at a couple of nominees from a few years back

2000 -

Javier Bardem (he is spanish) was nominated for best actor

Benicio Del Toro was nominated for Best actor in supporting role (he is from Puerto Rico)

2001

Will Smith was nominated for Best Actor

Denzel Washington was nominated and best actor

Hally Berry nominated best actress

2002

Salma Hayek nominated for best actress

Queen Latifa nominated for best actress in supporting role

2003

Benicio Del Toro nominated for best actor in supporting role

Ken Wantanabe nominated for best actor in supporting role

Djimon Hounsou nominated for best actor in supporting role

Keisha Castle Hughes nominated for best actress (Maori)

Shohreh Aghdashloo nominated for best actress in a supporting role (Iran-American)

2004

Don Sheadle nominated for best actor

Jamie Foxx nominated for best actor and best actor in a supporting role

Morgan Freeman nominated for best actor in a supporting role

Catalina Sandino Moreno nominated for best actress (columbian)

Sophie Okonedo nominated for best actress in a supporting role

2005

Terence Howard nominated for best actor

2006

Will Smith nominated for best actor

Forest Whitaker nominated for best actor

Djimon Hounsou nominated for best actor in supporting role

Eddie Murphy nominated for best actor in supporting role

Penelope Cruz nominated for best actress

Adriana Barraza nominated for best actress in supporting role (Mexican)

Rinko Kikuchi nominated for best actress in supporting role (Japanese)

This keeps going in the following years. Does anybody here see a problem with diversity or racism?

There are actors the HFP regularly ignores, like Leonardo DiCaprio. He has done some incredible acting in the past and his latest movie "The Revenant" is probably his best work yet. We will see if he wins an Oscar this time around.

1 | 2 | 3 | 4