Academy-president reageert op 'witte' Oscars

Toen de genomineerden voor de Oscars werden bekend gemaakt ontstond er al snel ophef over het gebrek aan etnische diversiteit bij de genomineerde acteurs en actrices. De president van de Academy, Cheryl Boone Isaacs, heeft nu gereageerd.

19-1-2016 Door: Bioscoopagenda

Cheryl Boone Isaacs

In een brief stelt Boone Isaacs dat ze het gebrek aan diversiteit betreurt. Ze stelt vervolgens dat er vier jaar geleden maatregelen zijn genomen om diversiteit te stimuleren maar dat deze verandering langzamer gaat dat zij had gehoopt.

Haar volledige verklaring luid:

I'd like to acknowledge the wonderful work of this year's nominees. While we celebrate their extraordinary achievements, I am both heartbroken and frustrated about the lack of inclusion. This is a difficult but important conversation, and it's time for big changes. The Academy is taking dramatic steps to alter the makeup of our membership. In the coming days and weeks we will conduct a review of our membership recruitment in order to bring about much-needed diversity in our 2016 class and beyond.

As many of you know, we have implemented changes to diversify our membership in the last four years. but the change is not coming as fast as we would like. We need to do more, and better and more quickly.

This isn't unprecedented for the Academy. In the '60s and '70s it was about recruiting younger members to stay vital and relevant. In 2016, the mandate is inclusion in all of its facets: gender, race, ethnicity and sexual orientation. We recognize the very real concerns of our community, and I so appreciate all of you who have reached out to me in our effort to move forward together.

Ondertussen hebben Spike Lee, Jada Pinkett Smith en Michael Moore laten weten de Oscaruitreiking te zullen boycotten.