A group of Southland civil rights leaders lashed out Friday at the lack of diversity among this year’s Oscar nominees, and said they would protest outside the ceremony Sunday.
“With all of this year’s acting contenders being white and no women in the directing or writing categories, it’s obvious that the Academy has a diversity problem they are going to have to fix,” said the Rev. K.W. Tulloss of the National Action Network.
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has been under fire since the Oscar nominations were announced last month, with an all-white lineup of best actor, actress, supporting actor and supporting actress nominees. Notably absent from the best-actor list was David Oyelowo, who portrayed Martin Luther King Jr. in the civil-rights drama “Selma,” which did earn a best- picture nod.
Civil rights activists say they want to send a message to the Academy, saying their concerns go beyond just the Oscars, but indicate a problem with the entertainment industry as a whole.
It’s the “whitest Academy Awards in 17 years, so what does that tell you?” said Earl Ofari Hutchinson of the Los Angeles Urban Policy Roundtable.
The activists’ concerns come one year after the slave-era drama “12 Years A Slave” won the Oscar for best picture, and one of its stars, Lupita Nyong’o, won the prize for best supporting actress.
— City News Service