The Oscars Racism Controversy Has Gone Off The Rails

If there was any doubt that the dominant story about the 2015 Academy Awards would be the lack of diversity in its nominations, the last week has put those doubts to rest. A quick timeline of events and comments:

Saturday, January 16th: Jada Pinkett Smith took to Facebook to express her dismay at another year of a fully white slate of acting nominees (and precious few nominees of color in other categories as well). “At the Oscars…people of color are always welcomed to give out awards…even entertain, but we are rarely recognized for our artistic accomplishments. Should people of color refrain from participating all together? People can only treat us in the way in which we allow.” This touched off several days of commentary about whether a boycott was appropriate, including commentary from Will Smith’s former TV mom Janet Hubert, which was not especially kind of the Smith.

Monday, January 18th: Academy president Cheryl Boone Isaacs released a statement about the controversy,in which she said she was “both heartbroken and frustrated about the lack of inclusion” in the nominations and said the Academy will be taking “dramatic steps to alter the makeup of our membership” in the near future. This touched off several days of commentary about possible solutions to the Academy’s diversity problems, some more realistic than others.

Monday, January 18th: Chi-raq director Spike Lee, who was the recipient of an honorary Oscar this year and was to be invited to the awards ceremony this year in acknowledgment of that, took to Instagram to announce that he and his wife would not be attending the Academy Awards this year. This touched off a few days of commentary about whether this would have been better had the honorary awards not been shunted off to their own ceremony earlier in the year, because at least in that case Lee would have had a platform at the Oscars to speak his mind. As it happened, Lee’s speech at the Governors Awards in November specifically addressed Hollywood coming up short when it comes to inclusion and diversity. Lee later clarified to Good Morning America that his non-attendance was not a boycott, just a personal “you do you” preference.

Thursday, January 21st: Supporting Actor nominee Mark Ruffalo (for Spotlight) told a BBC program that he was “weighing” whether or not to sit out the Oscar ceremony himself. “It isn’t just the Academy Awards,” Ruffalo said. “The entire American system is rife with white privilege racism. It goes into our justice system.” This touched off an afternoon or so of commentary about whether Ruffalo’s reaction was misplaced or no, until the actor himself clarified his position via Twitter.

Thursday, January 21st: Will Smith announced that he would be joining his wife Jada in not attending the Academy Awards, telling Good Morning America‘s Robin Roberts that he and his wife are “uncomfortable to stand there and say this is okay.” This touched off not very much commentary at all about whether Will Smith was good enough in Concussion to merit an nomination and whether that matters (it doesn’t).

Friday, January 22nd: Best Actress nominee Charlotte Rampling (45 Years) stepped in it good and proper when she told French radio that the controversy about needing increased diversity in the Oscar nominations was “racist to whites.” She went on to say that “one can never really know, but perhaps the black actors did not deserve to make the final list.” This touched off the last few hours of commentary about how learning new things about actors and actresses is never a good idea, as other people are constant and bottomless sources of disappointment.