Reasons/blame for Whiteout 2?

[Big Magilla]

For the record, "Spaniards", are not considered a minority in the U.S. "Latinos" or more precisely those of Mexican, Central and South American descent are.

It's really wacky the way these things are calculated. I used to get a pat on the back every year from my employer, one of the nation's biggest banks, because I hired and promoted more women and more minorities than any other office with more than fifty people. The kicker was that even though I probably hired and promoted even more Asians than I did African-Americans and Hispanics, I was told that Asians didn't count in the analysis because they were not statistically a minority of concern.

I never hired anyone to fill a quota. I always hired and promoted the best person for the job, which is what I'd expect everyone, including, filmmakers to do. Awards, though, are a different animal.

Again, aside from Idris Elba, and maybe Guatemalan born Oscar Isaac (Hernandez), there was no person of color that gave a performance that was really Oscar worthy who was overlooked.

[Sonic Youth]

I agree with your last post and I’m not saying the status quo is perfect. I’m just saying that calling an artistic organization racist based on their choices seems a scapegoat for a broader issue.

And you talk about scariness. Well, if I lived in a country where someone like Donald Trump could be elected President then I would be VERY VERY scared.

Oh, well then we agree.

Regarding Trump... well, we're not exactly delighted over here, to say the least.

[OscarGuy]

I think the reason why Spanish and Hispanic filmmakers and actors are lumped into the "race" category is because they are part of a minority in the United States and in the film industry. It isn't that they are not "white," but that they are a minority. Truth be told, it should be said that the Academy has a diversity problem, not necessarily a race problem. Yet, as I pointed out before, not for lack of trying and it's not like the Old Guard of the Academy are a bunch of racist bigots, they are among the most liberal minds in Hollywood history.

The issue is always quality of achievements. How many quality films were actually in competition this year? Look at the list of films that were critically acclaimed. Looking at the Top 50 according to Metacritic, there is only one film with a black protagonist on the list: Creed and it ranks #44. That tells you all you need to know, really. While a large portion of those films are documetnaries, the top ten features 7 narrative features. Out of these 7, one was ineligible and only one of them was nominated for Best Picture and that's Spotlight. Not Carol. Not 45 Years. Not Inside Out. Not Timbuktu (ineligible). Not Anomalisa. Not Jafar Panahi's Taxi. Expanding to the Top 20 and you add another two films to the Best Picture slate, Mad Max and Brooklyn.

The number of quality films along with the Academy's willingness to recognize them are both factors, not the racial makeup or diversity of the cast.

[Mister Tee]

I'm finding this whole thing profoundly depressing. There are very genuine issues here regarding availability of employment, but they're being buried in a tempest in a teapot over an extremely small, random matter. That it's blown up this dramatically, and now evoked disproportionate responses, is another sign that the social media/cable news era is perfectly designed to promote debate at the most superficial and too often wrongheaded level.

To be blunt: Jada Pinkett Smith's husband has already received two borderline at best nominations from this group she now sees as so horrible she must stay home and protest.

But Cheryl Boone Isaacs' response -- a clear panic move -- strikes me as even worse. For her to declare that the very noticeable recent attempts at diversifying the Academy electoral pool are a failure tells us that the idea behind it was not to create a more representative voting universe, but to guarantee a certain result: i.e., more minorities getting acting nominations. It'd be perfectly fine to presume that a larger pool of non-white voters might be more responsive to work by other non-white creators, and for that reason I salute the effort at expansion (though some of the individuals cited raised my eyebrows). But this statement goes beyond that; it seems to imply that newly-registered black voters will be voting for other black actors, and, if that failed to produce African-American nominees, the only solution is to keep adding more black voters until the result is achieved.

Can no one even see the irony: that the whiter electorate of 2001-2013 achieved far more racial diversity in its nominations? Yet now you're hearing some calls to purge some of the older members of that group, as if they must be the culprits for this anomaly.

As I say, profoundly depressing, and totally tangential to the actual issue. (Not to mention, as noted here, a far more trivial matter than the life-and-death ones that have been highlighted over the past year and a half here in the US.)

[ITALIANO]

And you talk about scariness. Well, if I lived in a country where someone like Donald Trump could be elected President then I would be VERY VERY scared.

I AM scared, and I dont live in the US. If that man is elected President, it will be a problem for the whole world unfortunately.

[ITALIANO]

[My wife is very surprised whenever she learns that "Latinos" are not considered "white". They sure are in her eyes.

In her eyes, but also in the eyes of anyone who, simply, has an education. "Latin" isn't a race, and we are as Caucasian as any WASPy American.

[ITALIANO]

Really? You have Spanish ancestry?

Ah, so if I had Spanish ancestry I WOULD be "colored" according to you... and you are European!

[mlrg]

Let me just say that this conversation is becoming quite atrocious and reaching epic proportions up to the point that the Academy's president has to realease a statement that basically is apologising for the nominations. This really shows the level of american culture. There weren’t more diverse nominees this year just by the fact that there weren’t any deserving of a nomination. Period! Get over with it.

Yeah, it's absurd. It's a society with countless problems - including, nobody can deny it, racial problems - and they think they must be solved at the Oscars... It's just idiotic.

Please don't think America believes that. Outside of the entertainment industry and devout Oscar fans, America generally doesn't care about "racial problems" at the Oscars, except maybe as a fleeting change of pace. All the countless problems, racial problems - over the last 18 months, they've boiled over on several, more important fronts. There have been more protests, movements, outrage, riots, condemnations and outspokenness etc. - also arrests and resignations - over racial problems regarding far more significant institutions than the entertainment industry.... the police, universities, and most recently an entire state and its government (Michigan). This has been the strongest, most sustained backlash against power and authority I've seen in my lifetime. The Oscars? Well, the protesting over THAT was going to happen anyway. But it's just a sidebar compared to everything else that's been happening in this country recently regarding racism, and the outcries against it.

"Nobody can deny it". Believe me, nobody is denying it. Everyone here is talking about it every day. The people who are outraged over the state America is in is very much outraged, and the people who are scared of the fresh anger are VERY scared. Some Americans may want us to ignore the racial problems, but no is ignoring them, much less denying them. My point is, the Oscars are NOT the central discussion Americans are having regarding racial tensions and inequality in America.

And every time this issue comes out, I realize - with a certain surprise, I must admit it - that by American standards I am - like Pedro Almodovar and Benicio Del Toro - a man of color...

Well, that's another issue, LOL. And there's a history behind it, one that's too long for me to get into. But yes, it's led to conflating race with ethnicity. My wife is very surprised whenever she learns that "Latinos" are not considered "white". They sure are in her eyes.

I agree with your last post and I’m not saying the status quo is perfect. I’m just saying that calling an artistic organization racist based on their choices seems a scapegoat for a broader issue.

And you talk about scariness. Well, if I lived in a country where someone like Donald Trump could be elected President then I would be VERY VERY scared.

[Sonic Youth]

Let me just say that this conversation is becoming quite atrocious and reaching epic proportions up to the point that the Academy's president has to realease a statement that basically is apologising for the nominations. This really shows the level of american culture. There weren’t more diverse nominees this year just by the fact that there weren’t any deserving of a nomination. Period! Get over with it.

Then the next question is: if your premise is correct (not everyone will agree... I have no opinion, having seen barely anything), WHY weren't there "any deserving of a nomination"?

Probably because the ones that got nominated were prefered by the voters compared to the ones that weren’t. Pretty simple. But hey, probably there is a conspiracy theory somewhere…

If you believe the status quo is exactly where it should be, all I'll say is I respect your opinion.

[Sonic Youth]

Let me just say that this conversation is becoming quite atrocious and reaching epic proportions up to the point that the Academy's president has to realease a statement that basically is apologising for the nominations. This really shows the level of american culture. There weren’t more diverse nominees this year just by the fact that there weren’t any deserving of a nomination. Period! Get over with it.

Yeah, it's absurd. It's a society with countless problems - including, nobody can deny it, racial problems - and they think they must be solved at the Oscars... It's just idiotic.

Please don't think America believes that. Outside of the entertainment industry and devout Oscar fans, America generally doesn't care about "racial problems" at the Oscars, except maybe as a fleeting change of pace. All the countless problems, racial problems - over the last 18 months, they've boiled over on several, more important fronts. There have been more protests, movements, outrage, riots, condemnations and outspokenness etc. - also arrests and resignations - over racial problems regarding far more significant institutions than the entertainment industry.... the police, universities, and most recently an entire state and its government (Michigan). This has been the strongest, most sustained backlash against power and authority I've seen in my lifetime. The Oscars? Well, the protesting over THAT was going to happen anyway. But it's just a sidebar compared to everything else that's been happening in this country recently regarding racism, and the outcries against it.

"Nobody can deny it". Believe me, nobody is denying it. Everyone here is talking about it every day. The people who are outraged over the state America is in is very much outraged, and the people who are scared of the fresh anger are VERY scared. Some Americans may want us to ignore the racial problems, but no is ignoring them, much less denying them. My point is, the Oscars are NOT the central discussion Americans are having regarding racial tensions and inequality in America.

And every time this issue comes out, I realize - with a certain surprise, I must admit it - that by American standards I am - like Pedro Almodovar and Benicio Del Toro - a man of color...

Well, that's another issue, LOL. And there's a history behind it, one that's too long for me to get into. But yes, it's led to conflating race with ethnicity. My wife is very surprised whenever she learns that "Latinos" are not considered "white". They sure are in her eyes.

[CalWilliam]

If any actor could feel disappointed this year that should be Idris Elba, definitely much more deserving than both Christian Bale and Mark Ruffalo in their category, as I see it.

This eternal debate of diversity will never end until society doesn't realize for once and for all that it shouldn't be that relevant whether a black, a gay, a white, a latin, an Asian or a woman director or screenwriter are nominated. It only should be notable in terms of history or art criticism movements. Anyway, it's definitely more interesting for the headlines focusing on lack of heterogeneity rather than Mad Max: Fury Road's ten nominations.

[mlrg]

Let me just say that this conversation is becoming quite atrocious and reaching epic proportions up to the point that the Academy's president has to realease a statement that basically is apologising for the nominations. This really shows the level of american culture. There weren’t more diverse nominees this year just by the fact that there weren’t any deserving of a nomination. Period! Get over with it.

Then the next question is: if your premise is correct (not everyone will agree... I have no opinion, having seen barely anything), WHY weren't there "any deserving of a nomination"?

Probably because the ones that got nominated were prefered by the voters compared to the ones that weren’t. Pretty simple. But hey, probably there is a conspiracy theory somewhere…

[Heksagon]

Then the next question is: if your premise is correct (not everyone will agree... I have no opinion, having seen barely anything), WHY weren't there "any deserving of a nomination"?

Now this is a question that I've been wondering myself and I'd really like to know the answer to. I'd love to see some reporter get his lazy ass off his chair and look into it. Unfortunately, it's much easier for them to point their finger at the Academy, so they prefer doing that.

[Sonic Youth]

Let me just say that this conversation is becoming quite atrocious and reaching epic proportions up to the point that the Academy's president has to realease a statement that basically is apologising for the nominations. This really shows the level of american culture. There weren’t more diverse nominees this year just by the fact that there weren’t any deserving of a nomination. Period! Get over with it.

Then the next question is: if your premise is correct (not everyone will agree... I have no opinion, having seen barely anything), WHY weren't there "any deserving of a nomination"?

Nothing "period" about it. Each answer leads to more questions and further analysis, as it should be.

[Big Magilla]

The boycott announcement from a featured actress in Magic Mike XXL comes across as sour grapes. Was the makeup of the Academy any different when her husband was nominated twice in the past? If anything, if was more white in 2006 and 2001. Maybe she thought she herself would get a surprise Supporting Actress nod.

As for Spike Lee, he's been bitching ever since Driving Miss Daisy won the year he himself was nominated for writing Do the Right Thing, losing to Dead Poets Society in 1989.

I do think that Idris Elba should have been nominated for Beasts of No Nation, but that was due as much to Netflix's heavy-handed interference as well as the strong competition in the supporting actor category. Bleecker Street Cinema, the theatrical distributor of the film also released Trumbo which had no trouble securing a Best Actor nod for Bryan Cranston despite its lowly standing in the distribution firmament, but Trumbo did not have same day streaming availability.