When I was in high school in the mid-80s, the complete list of Black actors with Oscars were

Hattie McDaniel - Gone With The Wind (1939)
Sidney Poitier- Lillies In The Fields (1963)
Lou Gossett Jr - An Officer and a Gentleman (1982)

And that was it. For over Sixty Years! Eddie Murphy talked about it in a Stand-Up bit, but other than that nobody really made a big deal about it until Do The Right Thing got totally snubbed in 1989. I think the Oscars have come a long way.

Neither of them seem to really care all that much to be honest, Lee is particular was never going to the Oscars, not sure why people assumed he was.

Because he won an Honorary Oscar earlier this year and was expected to show up at the Oscar telecast to be acknowledged.

Makes sense

They are correct, but irrelevant alone. The protest is about the lack of nominations, not winners. I ran numbers three different ways a couple of pages ago. Since 2000, blacks are somewhat underrepresented in terms of acting nominations (9%, 29 out of 320 nominations). Take it back another 5 years to 1995 like this guy did and it gets worse, with only 33 out of 420 nominations (7.8%).

Also, the black population is 13.4%, not just 13%. If he is going to tenths on the win %, he should on the population as well.

I remember seeing LILIES IN THE FIELDS a few weeks before Poitier got his Oscar, so that was a big deal for me, since it was the first time I paid attention to the Oscars and the first time a film I'd just seen won for something major. I didn't get to watch the ceremony because we didn't have a working TV in my household. But I read about it in at least three papers the next day (my father was more of a newspaper reader than a TV watcher).

That needs a Blu-ray release.

I'm not sure if Spike Lee was going to show up to the Oscars ceremony anyway. He's been a frequent and consistent critic of the Academy and the movie industry in general. He's actually won an Oscar before, sort of. In 1983 he won a Student Academy Award. Since then, he's only been nominated twice, once for Do the Right Thing and then once for his documentary 4 Little Girls. He had never won. Though at only 58, he's the youngest honorary winner since 1969. Also note that he's not the only honorary winner this year, both Gena Rowlands and Debbie Reynolds also received an honorary statue.

To be fair to Spike Lee, his best work came at a time when the Academy was just starting to change. Not to suggest that the Academy is perfect. It never has been and never will be. But there's been certain clear biases (race being once) that have receded. Just a few posts above me in this thread, it was pointed out how few African-American actors won Oscars. The number was at 3 until arouond 25-30 years ago.Now it's much, much higher. And while I enjoy both 25th Hour and Inside Man, Spike Lee's best work has generally been from the late 1980s and early 1990s (She's Gotta Have It (1986), School Daze (1988), Do the Right Thing (1989), Mo' Better Blues (1990), Jungle Fever (1991), and Malcolm X (1992)) Which is about 25-30 years ago. So, to an extent, he was unfortunate to be operating at his best then and not 10-15 years later.

And so some people have then used him as a perfect example of why the Oscars are biased. Except I cannot say he would have been nominated more in subsequent years. Maybe, maybe not. You know who else never won an Oscar? Alfred Hitchcock (though he too like Lee got an honorary one). And Stanley Kubrick's only win was for Special Effects for 2001: A Space Odyssey (he has 12 other directing/writing/producing nominations). And Martin Scorsese won just once, for the Departed in 2007. Spike Lee's angry that Do the Right Thing lost out to Driving Miss Daisy among others in 1990. I'm sure Scorsese isn't thrilled that Raging Bull lost out to Ordinary People or that Goodfellas lost to Dances with Wolves. So it's hard to distinguish between what might have some sort of racial bias and what might be the Academy being the Academy. Hell, Citizen Kane, widely regarded as the best American film ever made didn't win Best Picture. It lost to How Green Was My Valley.

To be fair Idris Elba got a nom at GG,Bafta and the Screen Actors guid (aka 3 of the 4 big precursor awards). I do not believe he missed the top 5 cause the voters are racist but if your average age is 60 something someone being in a film distrubuted by Netflix is working from a disadvantage. More younger Oscar voters(of any race) would have given Idrid a better chance at a nomination. It would also decrease the chances of a sub 50% Matacritic/Rotten Tomatoes film that everyones Grandpa likes http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0477302/combined Extremely Loud getting a BP nom.

Charlotte Rampling: I regret that Oscars racism comment was 'misinterpreted'

‘I simply meant to say that in an ideal world every performance will be given equal opportunities for consideration.’
'Diversity in our industry is an important issue that needs to be addressed, I am highly encouraged by the changes announced today by the academy to diversify its membership.'

http://www.theguardian.com/film/2016...misinterpreted

Ugh, I still want to punch the little kid from that movie.

Like I said before : out of touch old farts running the show.

Stephen Daldry must be blowing someone in the academy.

The Oscar Whiteness Machine

http://www.newyorker.com/culture/cul...teness-machine

Ice Cube was on Graham Norton tonight with Kevin Hart promoting "Ride Along 2". And Graham asked him about his thoughts on the Oscar controversy. What a humble response!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w69qFJmnq-U

I read about that a few days ago, and it was really well said by Cube. Funny to see Hugh Laurie on there, given I think he was snubbed and never won an Emmy for playing Dr. House on TV.

Yeah, Norton is filmed and aired in England at least one week before it airs on BBC America. He has the best talk show IMO. If you don't know him or his show, I highly recommend you seek it out. About your comment on Laurie. Yet another shining example that you can't take any awards show seriously. I mean, look no further than the Grammys!

Seriously just look at Kalapana. Commercially and critically succesful but always snubbed for Best Hawaain album because the Grammy committee who controls that category has a clear bias towards Honolulu based acts and against those from Kaneohe

Not to say that "12 Years a Slave" wasn't an anomaly but to not even recognize it in this paragraph is pretty absurd. It dominated the Oscars only 2 years ago and Steve McQueen was nominated for best director. Elijafor and Nuongo were both recognized for their performances, as was the black writer, John Ridley.

This is pure bullshit. This would only be true if Michael B. Jordan and Ryan Coogler were in the same nomination category as Stallone. As it is, what's really being said is that compared to the other supporting actors of the year, Stallone is in the top 5. While compared to other directors and lead actors this year, MBJ and Coogler are not in their respective top 5.

Don't worry, they will over-correct the other way next year and even Kevin Hart will get a Best Actor nomination for Get Hard 2.

Just in case anyone missed it :

<iframe width="853" height="480" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/ospx7tXWYbI" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

"Lillies of the Field" will get a Blu-ray release in March. However, it's from Twilight Time, so its limited to 3000 copies and will be $30 (plus shipping).

Isn't that the pot calling the kettle, um...black.

Considering SNL was recently criticized as well for whitewashing the cast and the panic hired Sasheer Zamata to appease the critics.

I hope that stuff like this and the sentiment that Coogler & B Jordan should have been nominated doesn't sabotage Stallone's chances of getting the nod for best supporting actor. He's really the only person I'd really like to see get the win.