Posted on 01/28/2016 6:20:34 AM PST by Kaslin
First, the facts. Since 2000, 10 percent of Oscar nominations have gone to black actors. Blacks comprise 13 percent of the country's population, so the Oscar nominations have roughly paralleled the percentage of blacks in the U.S.
Here's how the nomination process works. There are about 6,200 voting members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences. The Academy is divided into 17 branches, with the actor division -- of 1,138 members -- the largest. Actors nominate actors in each of the four categories -- lead and supporting, actor and actress -- listing up to five names ranked in order of preference. The five nominees come from the highest-ranked names with the most votes beyond a minimum threshold. So all actor members literally "write in" their personal choices.
Actors are almost all leftist Democrats, so, according to the #OscarsSoWhite narrative, the same lefties who nominated and voted for Best Actors Halle Berry, Forest Whitaker, Denzel Washington, Jamie Foxx and others reverted to "racism" in the last two years, because during that period there were no black nominees.
Director Spike Lee and actress Jada Pinkett Smith say they are boycotting this year's "all-white" Oscars, and accuse the Hollywood industry of racism. But Hollywood, unlike the Department of Motor Vehicles, consists of privately owned companies with a singular goal -- to make fare that people wish to spend their money to see. In that regard, as to black consumers, the industry succeeds spectacularly. Blacks watch, on average, two hours more of television per day than whites, according to Nielsen ratings, and blacks purchase more movie tickets than do whites, according to the Motion Picture Association of America.
Can we ask the protesters to name the bigots' names? During the bad old days of Jim Crow and segregation, the evil had names. The governor who, at his inaugural speech, bellowed, "Segregation now, segregation tomorrow, segregation forever" had a name: George Wallace. The governor who refused to allow black boys and girls to attend white public schools in Arkansas in 1957 had a name: Orval Faubus. The Birmingham, Alabama, commissioner of public safety, who turned water hoses and sicced dogs on black and white civil rights protesters in had a name: Eugene "Bull" Connor.
So who are the Hollywood racists? Is it studio chiefs? Because of the Sony hack, we learned that former co-studio head Amy Pascal considered a black man, Idris Elba, to play the next James Bond. So, apparently, she isn't the one. According to annual studies from USC's Annenberg School of the top-grossing 100 films released every year, black actors have averaged 12.7 percent of the speaking roles from 2007 through 2014 -- virtually the same as blacks' percent of the population.
As to the white actors, actresses and directors who did get nominated, a question. Which ones did not deserve it? Did they break into the homes of Academy members, carrying guns and disguised with ski masks to make the members vote the way they did? Succeeding as an actor, given the competition and the non-existent barriers to entry, is arguably a more difficult and unlikely achievement than succeeding in professional sports. Those who have made it overcame long odds and fierce competition to do so. And now that they've "made it," should they feel guilty because they're white?
More important, why does it matter whether wealthy, spectacularly lucky and fortunate blacks get or don't get nominated anyway? A black friend, a successful actor-director, answered the question this way: self-esteem of young black boys and girls. But there's a huge problem with that argument. Decades of research overwhelmingly shows that black boys and white girls have higher self-esteem than do white boys and white girls. Black girls, for example, have a much healthier attitude toward their bodies than do white girls obsessed with a wildly unrealistic Barbie-doll-type body style. Turns out blacks derive their sense of self-esteem from the same places everybody else does -- their parents, relatives, friends, teachers and other influential role models in their own communities.
This "protest" is largely driven by a rich, successful director, Spike Lee, who put his New York City mansion up for sale at $32 million in 2014. That would provide the money to hire a team of psychologists to get him over his depression.
About the controversy, rapper Ice Cube points out that "Straight Outta Compton" did, in fact, get an Oscar nomination for best original screenplay. As to the #OscarsSoWhite controversy, Cube said, given the praise the movie has received, it's as if one were "crying about not having enough icing on your cake. ... It's ridiculous."
Sanity -- straight outta Compton.
The smaller the minority group in any subset the larger the yearly swing will be year by year of under-representation vs. over-representation per the demographic percentages.
But I guess MATH IS RACIST!
If they wanted to be really PC, they could give all the actors an Academy Awards participation trophy.
Here’s a thought;
I don’t give a rat’s butt about the Oscars, who gets them, who votes on them, who attends the ceremony, or where they stuff the little statue after the award.
Are the poor little entertainment people feeling neglected?
One small reason for the disparity is that I have not bought a movie ticket in 12 years, and I suspect I am not alone.
The civil rights frauds have been losing cultural traction lately and all of this hashtag nonsense is just the same old attempt to keep whites off balance penitent. People don’t seem to be falling for it.
The crap coming out of Hollywood is worse by the day. I don’t watch the awards shows, I increasingly don’t know who these people are, I seldom go to movies anymore (I used to go quite often) because while the quality of the filming is great the actual stories are usually morally toxic. If the whole thing isn’t objectionable there is almost always a trojan horse they are trying to feed you.
Even knowing what a movie is about, I’ve still walked out of several over the years, where the movie-makers are essentially poking their thumb in my eye, and I’ve got better things to do that sit there while they do it.
I know I sound like a crank, and I am, because I used to really enjoy movies. I still enjoy movies from the early thirties. So I guess I am a crank. I did rouse myself to go see 13 Hours. Well done.
The real issue, even for me, is a transparent voting system by neutral judges.
If they can have a panel holding up cards for Olympic diving, then they can do the same for the Oscars.
Then NOBODY can question what’s going on.
That said, I have not seen one single movie in over a year.
[ The real issue, even for me, is a transparent voting system by neutral judges.
If they can have a panel holding up cards for Olympic diving, then they can do the same for the Oscars.
Then NOBODY can question what’s going on.
That said, I have not seen one single movie in over a year. ]
Well no doubt there is a BUNCH of wheeling dealing going on for votes in the back ground. The only place MORE corrupt than D.C. if you can believe it is Holly-weird.
Then why click on a thread about them?
I make a point of missing this shXX anyway.
I hate the hollywood left, really I do.
However, like the rest of life at times, favoritism wins over merit.
When this happens we all lose in a way.
Danny Devito, its his industry, for 50 or 60 years that he has been an actor, that has shut out blacks. He is the most racist of all of this world. Your stupid award is just that like you Danny.
People who are on gubermint handouts tend to spend more on entertainment. But the whites get more welfare you say according to this chart...
But percentage wise it is a LOT higher. Blacks make up about 12.5% the population, so that number of 5.9Million should be a LOT lower to match percentages of population if all races were equal.
Black were the first victims of the "great society" of demoralization, people who are demoralized tend to seek distraction from their lives, thus they spend more on things like music, movies and munchies.
I would also wager that ANYONE on the government dole would spend their pocket cash on hollywierd movies and entertainment at a greater rate than the "working Poor, & lower middle class". Welfare is the bread part and Hollywierd entertainment is the circuses....
Welcome to the Un-Holy Roman Empire Version 2.0....
I think all the breathless whinging and agitating is a great thing. I hope they keep it up until people are so pissed off at the movie industry that it collapses. Burn it to the ground.
“Please don throw me in dat briar patch!”
Glaringly obvious by its absence:
#NobelsoWhite
#MacArthurSTEMGeniussoWhite
(The MacArthur grants do go to minorities in their arts and public service awards.)
You’re not a crank at all. You’re stating an honest opinion. People who would call you a crank are those who don’t like your opinion, but can’t think of an honest argument against it, so they stoop to name-calling.
I agree with you about the crap from Hollywood. Not just the movies, but TV, too. They are always pushing some liberal agenda. (Watch any crime shows? Notice that about 80% of the forensic pathologists are black? What’s up with that? I’ve got nothing against black forensic pathologists, but I’d be surprised to find out that more than 1% of them are black in real life. It seems to me that they are trying to convince people (Blacks? Whites? Both?) that blacks are highly intelligent, science-oriented, crusaders for justice. Yes, some are. Not 80%, though. Yes, I’d love to see more black kids pursue more education in science. Showing intelligent, accomplished black scientists may be a good idea to show them that those are viable options. But cramming it down our throats at the rate of 80% is ludicrous.)
Everyone knows that the Black population of the United States is 50%. They see two anchors on local news, a white and a Black. Daytime TV is dominated by shows aimed at a Black audience. Look at Blacks in the NFL and NBA. And in commercials, we learn that not only are Blacks 50% of the population, they are also a lot smarter than white men.
Who are these racists claiming that the Black population is only 12.5%?
I haven’t bought a movie ticket since “Top Gun”, and only went to that one to please my son, who knew I liked planes, etc.
The last before that was probably “one flew over the cuckoos nest”.
Even with all the hundreds of channels on cable, I mainly watch old movies on TCM, and the Encore western channel. I don’t watch any network sitcoms, they’re disgusting.
So frustrating!
#BlackLiesMatter
So let me get this straight...the people who think the Oscars are too white are the same people who said nothing about their party’s presidential slate being too white even though it’s as lily white as the Oscar nominees. And the only party with a very diverse slate of candidates is evil. You just can’t make this stuff up.
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