![]() ![]() Reaction online to Rock’s comments – and the racially tinged tenor of the show – was mostly positive. “In the In Memoriam package, it’s just going to be black people who were shot by the cops on the way to the movies,” he said, a reference to the recent police shootings in Ferguson, Missouri, and elsewhere that galvanized the #BlackLivesMatter movement. Rock pushed things even further when he joked that the Oscars telecast would be a little different this year. “When your grandmother’s swinging from a tree, it’s really hard to care about best documentary foreign short.” “We were too busy being raped and lynched to care about who won best cinematographer,” he said. So this whole ‘no black nominees’ thing has happened at least 71 other times.” Rock said black Americans didn’t made a fuss about it back then because they had more important things to worry about. Some of Rock’s more pointed jokes drew gasps or stunned silence from the mostly white audience inside Hollywood’s Dolby Theatre. “We want black actors to get the same opportunities as white actors – that’s it. Rock’s monologue alternated between jokes and more serious statements echoing those of black leaders who have called for the movie industry to be more inclusive in hiring and casting minorities. And the last thing I need is to lose another job to Kevin Hart.” But they’re not going to cancel the Oscars because I quit. Rock said that he himself was urged by some to step down as host in protest. The exclusion caused an uproar and led some prominent black celebrities, including actress Jada Pinkett Smith and filmmaker Spike Lee, to skip the show. ![]() Rock had been widely expected to speak up on the well-documented lack of ethnic and gender diversity in Hollywood after no minorities were nominated in any of the four acting categories for the second consecutive year. Host Chris Rock speaks at the Oscars on Sunday at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles. ![]()
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