California protest slams ‘discriminatory’ Academy Awards
Protesters in the US State of California have staged a rally calling for a boycott of the 88th Academy Awards (Oscars), for its ‘discrimination’ against the African Americans.
Demonstrators congregated on the corner of Sunset Boulevard and Highland Avenue, Los Angeles, where the event was held on Sunday.
Chanting slogans against the ‘unfair’ treatment by Hollywood officials, the protesters urged more diversity in feature films.
American civil rights activist Al Sharpton also addressed the crowd, slamming what he called an all-white slate of acting nominees.
Sharpton added that the Academy had promised him to make changes in their policy for this year.
“There are no blacks who can greenlight a film,” he told people. “We can put a black family in the White House, but we can’t put a black in the boardroom of power in Hollywood.”
Meanwhile, Najee Ali, director of Project Islamic Hope, said in a statement that the lack of black nominees at the Hollywood event “sends a message that an African American host can entertain us and African American talent can participate by being presenters, but no African Americans are worthy of a nomination,” the Los Angeles Times reported.
“The job of African American talent at the ceremony is to entertain and present white people their Oscars. Why should our black elite just be on hand to give the white elite their Oscar awards?”
Ali said the protest would be followed by a number of efforts aimed at Hollywood studios and a “system that still has roots of racism and sexism.”
This is the second consecutive year that no people of color were nominated for awards in major categories. The Academy has long been criticized for its unfair selection of nominees since its establishment.
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