Nominations for the 88th Academy Awards were announced Thursday morning and it wasn’t long before people started to complain — as they do every time the noms are announced.
This time, the PC police swooped in and moaned that the Academy ignored diversity and filled the categories with white actors, leaving out people of color despite great performances.
Among the actors and actresses nominated are Cate Blanchett, Matt Damon, Jennifer Lawrence and Leonardo DiCaprio, but many people asked why Will Smith wasn’t nominated for his role in “Concussion,” or why “Straight Outta Compton” and “Creed” got no recognition.
In a time when protests like “Black Lives Matter” are riling up racial discord nearly daily across the country, and college campuses are setting up “safe spaces” to be free from anything they find offensive, it is surprising that the Academy did not give in to the pressure to be politically correct with Oscar.
After the nominations, people took to social media with hashtags and opinions calling the list a “white-out” and demanding Hollywood and the Academy stop “snubbing” diversity.
The Academy tried to please people when it made a major push to diversify its membership, and the academy president, Cheryl Boone Isaacs, even created a new initiative in November — A2020 — which was designed to promote inclusion within its staff. However, none of that was good enough, and critics say an all-white nominee list proves the lack of diversity in Hollywood.
The backlash follows what was a year of racial tension, with a surge of student activism on college campuses. Whether it was students calling for the removal of the American Flag and banning “American Sniper” or demanding apologies for “racist climates” on college campuses, tension has spread across the country.
In a recent episode of PC madness, a high school in Wisconsin banned chants — even booing — because it deemed them “unsportsmanlike behavior.”
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People may claim the nominations lack diversity and the industry is against people of color, but with everyone so eager to voice their opinions, they quickly forget that “12 Years a Slave” earned three Academy Awards in 2014, including best picture and Chiwetel Ejiefor, was nominated for best actor. “Selma” was also nominated last year for best picture and won best original song, and the host for the awards this year is Chris Rock, a black comedian.
Few on social media were noting this obvious conclusion: Despite the PC culture rampant in Hollywood, the Academy looked past trying to please everyone and honored those who excelled in the film industry this year.
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