Chris Rock’s opening monologue addressed the #OscarsSoWhite controversy. He told his star-studded audience that Hollywood was racist.
He described Hollywood as ‘sorority racist’ – only giving white people roles, ‘we want opportunity,’ said Rock. ‘We want black actors to get the same opportunities.’
He also attacked Will Smith and Jada Pinkett Smith for their boycott.
Here is an excerpt of the speech.
It’s the 88th Academy Awards. It’s the 88th Academy Awards, which means this whole no black nominees thing has happened at least 71 other times. O.K.?
You gotta figure that it happened in the 50s, in the 60s — you know, in the 60s, one of those years Sidney didn’t put out a movie. I’m sure there were no black nominees some of those years. Say ‘62 or ‘63, and black people did not protest.
Why? Because we had real things to protest at the time, you know? We had real things to protest; you know, we’re too busy being raped and lynched to care about who won best cinematographer.
You know, when your grandmother’s swinging from a tree, it’s really hard to care about best documentary foreign short.
But what happened this year? What happened? People went mad. Spike got mad, — got mad, and Jada went mad, and Will went mad. Everybody went mad, you know?
Jada got mad? Jada says she not coming, protesting. I’m like ain’t she on a TV show?
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