Thoughts about Jada Pinkett Smith boycotting the Oscars

[missy]

http://www.usmagazine.com/celebrity-news/news/will-smith-responds-to-jada-pinkett-smiths-oscars-2016-boycott-w162199

Will is supporting his wife like any good dh would. So agree or not with the action one has to admire the partnership, love and support they share.

 

[momhappy]

^But I would expect that he would say that - that it's not about sour grapes (about him not being nominated). Of course he's going to say that. I would think that you either "support" what she's said or you risk looking foolish because your wife throws a tantrum when you don't win an Oscar...

 

[momhappy]

Another interesting take on it
http://www.mediaite.com/online/stacey-dash-slams-jada-pinkett-smith-on-oscar-outrage-what-about-bets-segregation/

 

[missy]

Spike Lee and others want affirmative action in Hollywood. Just sharing the links. I have no comments. Hey for once I am speechless. Enjoy it while it lasts.


http://www.breitbart.com/big-hollywood/2016/01/18/jada-pinkett-smith-calls-blacks-separate-mainstream-oscar-nominating-controversy/

and

http://www.reuters.com/article/us-awards-oscars-diversity-boycott-idUSKCN0UX29M

After Jada Pinkett Smith suggested on Twitter that minorities should boycott the upcoming 88th Academy Awards over the ceremony’s lack of diversity, the actress and wife of Will Smith is now calling on the black community to separate itself from “mainstream” culture.

“Hi, today is Dr. Martin Luther King’s birthday,” she said in a two-minute video posted on her Facebook page on Sunday. “I can’t help but ask the question: Is it time that people of color recognize how much power, influence that we have amassed that we no longer need to ask to be invited anywhere?”

She added: “I ask the question: Have we now come to a new time and place where we recognize that we can no longer beg for he love, acknowledgment, or respect of any group; that maybe it’s time that we recognize that if we love and respect and acknowledge ourselves in the way in which we are asking others to do, that that is the place of true power?” She continued:

Here’s what I believe; 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. Maybe it is time that we pull back our resources, and we put them back into our communities, into our programs, and we make programs for ourselves that acknowledge us in ways that we see fit that are just as good as the so-called mainstream ones. I don’t know, here’s what I do believe: Begging for acknowledgment or even asking diminishes dignity, and diminishes power, and we are a dignified people, and we are powerful, and let’s not forget it. So, let’s let the Academy do them, with all grace and love, and let’s do us differently. I got nothin’ but love.

Pinkett Smith then addressed comedian Chris Rock, who is hosting this year’s show for the second time.

“Hey, Chris, I will not 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. And to the rest of you, nothin’ but love always,” she said.


For the second year in a row, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) announced last week that all 20 Oscar nominations in the four main acting categories had gone to white actors.

Last year, critics blasted the Academy for failing to nominate Selma director Ava DuVernay and leading man David Oyelowo for awards in their respective categories.

Box office bomb Concussion, which stars Pinkett Smith’s husband Will Smith, was among black-led films snubbed from awards consideration this year.

On her Twitter page on Saturday, Pinkett Smith weighed in on this year’s #OscarsSoWhite controversy.

“At the Oscars… people of color are always welcomed to give out awards… even entertain, but we are rarely recognized for our artistic achievements,” wrote the actress. “Should people of color refrain from participating all together?”

Director Spike Lee and his wife will also be boycotting the Oscars.

“We cannot support it and mean no disrespect to my friends, host Chris Rock and producer Reggie Hudlin, President Isaacs and the Academy. But, how is it possible for the 2nd consecutive year all 20 contenders under the actor category are white?” Lee wrote on Instagram. “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?! WTF!!”

In a statement last Thursday, the Rev. Al Sharpton also blasted Hollywood for its so-called “fraudulent image of progressive and liberal politics and policies.”

“Hollywood is like the Rocky Mountains, the higher up you get the whiter it gets and this year’s Academy Awards will be yet another Rocky Mountain Oscars,” Sharpton said. “Yet again, deserving Black actors and directors were ignored by the Academy — which reinforces the fact that there are few if any Blacks with real power in Hollywood.”

Film director Spike Lee, who is leading calls for a boycott of the 2016 Oscars over the lack of black actors among nominees, called on Tuesday for Hollywood to adopt policies to address the issue of racial diversity behind and in front of the camera.

Lee, who was awarded an honorary Oscar in November, said Hollywood had fallen behind the worlds of music and sports, saying it makes sense businesswise for the movie and TV industry to reflect the racial diversity of the United States.

"As I Said In My Honorary Oscar Acceptance Speech, It's Easier For An African-American To Be President Of The United States Than Be President Of A Hollywood Studio," the "Chi-Raq" director wrote on his Instagram page.



Lee cited the National Football League requiring teams to interview minority candidates for head coaching and senior executive jobs.

"Why Can't Hollywood Do The Same?" he added.

Lee's call for a boycott on Monday followed nominations last week which featured no people of color in the 20 lead and supporting actor and actress nominations.

Director Michael Moore said on Tuesday he would join the boycott, along with Jada Pinkett-Smith, the actress wife of snubbed "Concussion" star Will Smith.

The debate prompted a rare statement from the president of the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences, whose members vote on the Oscars, pledging big but unspecific changes and a review of the way members are recruited.

"I am both heartbroken and frustrated about the lack of inclusion," wrote Cheryl Boone Isaacs, who is black, late on Monday. "Change is not coming as fast as we would like. We need to do more."

Membership of the Academy is by recommendation of two other members, or is automatically awarded by being Oscar nominated. The full list of the 6,000 or so Academy members has never been disclosed although a 2012 Los Angeles Times study found that its members were nearly 94 percent white and 77 percent male.

In recent years, the Academy has begun publishing lists of new members. Recent additions among black actors, musicians and directors include Chris Rock - the 2016 Oscars host - , Oscar winner Lupita Nyong'o, Prince, Pharrell Williams, "Selma" director Ava DuVernay, comedian Kevin Hart and Steve McQueen, the black British director of 2014 Oscar-winning movie "12 years a Slave."

The boycott has not been universally supported.

Janet Hubert, best known for her role on 1990s TV comedy show "The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air," accused the Smiths of hypocrisy, saying they have made "millions and millions of dollars from the very people that you're talking about boycotting just because you didn't get a nomination."

"You have a huge production company that you only produce your friends and family and yourself. So you are a part of Hollywood, you are part of the system that is unfair to other actors. So get real," Hubert added in a YouTube video.

 

[missy]

Hot off the presses!

http://abc7ny.com/entertainment/film-academy-pledges-reforms-by-2020-in-response-to-oscar-diversity-crisis/1170073/

The film academy is pledging to double the number of female and minority members by 2020, and will immediately diversify its leadership by adding three new seats to its board of governors.


Academy president Cheryl Boone Isaacs announced the changes Friday, following a weeklong storm of criticism and calls for an Oscar boycott after academy members nominated an all-white slate of actors for the second year in a row.

"The Academy is going to lead and not wait for the industry to catch up," she said in a statement.

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences' 51-member board of governors unanimously approved a series of reforms late Thursday to "begin the process of significantly changing our membership composition," Isaacs said. The number of minorities currently serving as members of the academy has not been revealed.

Other changes include limiting members' voting status to a period of 10 years, to be extended only if the individual remains active in film during that decade. Lifetime voting rights will be granted only to Academy Award nominees and winners, and to members after three ten-year voting terms. Previously, all active members received lifetime voting rights.

The organization also plans to diversify its leadership beyond the board of governors by adding new members to key decision-making committees, and further diversify its membership with a global campaign to identify and recruit diverse talent.