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Civil rights groups to protest Oscars over lack of diversity

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@Cris

"People are people, not races."

If only the KKK, the Tea Party, the National Front and the Nazis could have grasped that fact, the world could have been a much better place....

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I am sick and tired of the ultra liberal left and the liberal dominated governemnt and media in the US pushing the racial issue over and over and over. People are people, not races. Get over it. Success comes from quality and there is no guarentee for that chance for success for anyone of any race..you have to work for it. and earn it. No freebies and i wish they would just stop the nonsense of it all. When we can get rid of the national joke of a non president in the US we may see some of this silly race focus go away. I hope so.

-1 ( +0 / -1 )

Will Smith crying again?

-1 ( +0 / -1 )

Turned out the 'non-diverse' Oscars 2015 were won by a Mexican: Best Picture, Best Director, Best Screenplay.

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I'm only in favor of this if the civil right they are protesting for is Jake Gyllenhaal's right to recieve a nomination for Nightcrawler

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Extremists are everywhere.

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So, actors from ethnic minority groups would rather be nominated because they are from ethnic minority groups than if they had the talent and put forward a good enough performance to be nominated? I'm all for affirmative action, but there needs to be moments where you realize that there's a difference between keeping options limited to some is not the same as keeping the options open to all but only some making the cut.

I couldn't have said it better!

so let me get this right..........your protesting...because they want to hand you a award for just being black, make a great movie and you win, plenty of black movies have won, from precious.

Exactly, and more specific, for being black, so, now, the best director winner is not a minority (Latino; Hispanic), he's white!!!!

Pluh- ease!

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Thank you Raymond Chuang Feb. 22, 2015 - 09:15PM. & Laguna Feb. 22, 2015 - 12:34PM. Both perspectives inform and fairly state the conditions surrounding these protests. 6,100, reported here, 6,200 in LA Times, voting members would seem to eliminate a clear cut case of racial bias. That's seemingly too many to claim any specific bias, of the all the prejudices, that many people might entertain.

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Whatever our views on "diversity" or affirmative action, seems a little bit unlikely that Hollywood should be a target for these protests. Would seem the be the most "right on" slice of US society one could imagine

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so let me get this right..........your protesting...because they want to hand you a award for just being black, make a great movie and you win, plenty of black movies have won, from precious.

I'm sorry but making a movie about the same thing over and over doesn't win awards, noir does it for simply being black, this is a idiotic argument.

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Well, I think more needs to done to increase the opportunities for minorities in the film industry. Voting on films based on minorities and race is wrong on all levels.

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Well, there go's the neighborhood!-You know "Big Al" was the Black Sheep in his family, ran away from home but had a change of heart,went home to an empty flat & No fowarding adress from the family. Then he found his mealticket in a hapless lass named Tawana Brawley & the rest is History!

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What everyone seems to NOT understand is that Al is in the race grievance industry, that is how he has made his millions through shakedowns. That is the ONLY way Al knows how to make his money. He's a so called Rev. but at the same time, he's a White House consultant and has a show on msnbc??? This is totally unheard of. If there is racism towards Whites, Asians, Hispanics, Women and Gays, you NEVER hear from him, EVER. Why? Because there's NO money in it for him. He is very selective in the causes that he takes up and will go only after those that he knows they are going to pay to get him out of their hair. Sharpton doesn't care about others, he only cares about what can move him forward and up.

1 ( +2 / -1 )

Looks like the Selma producers and directors misstepped in a couple of places, if their goal was accolades from the Academy. One is the marketing-to-Academy mishandling, like Raymond mentioned. There was an article recently about various Oscar surprises that mentioned Selma re this. Another is a bad portrayal of LBJ to an Academy that was described as "94 percent white and 77 percent male ... a median age of 62" in 2012. That demographic (in Hollywood, yet!) might be expected to have fond memories of LBJ's Great Society, whatever they thought of the Vietnam War. Thirdly, that man-the-protest-ramparts Rainbow-Coalition-blackmail-playbook stuff may play well with the home base and with corporations dependent on their own marketing numbers, but how's it going to play with the Academy? If this is just the opening salvo, I guess we'll see over time.

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These race baiters like Al sharpton are a joke. They are basically no better than organized criminals racketeering, doing shakedowns to get money because they need racism to exist so they can keep getting rich off of it.

Well news for everyone else, racism has been dead a long time in america. Other than a few idiots in groups like the ridiculous Klan, Nation of Islam, New Black Panthers, criminal gangs and the likes of Al Sharpton, there is no racism. Also, only the democrat party bureaucrats who run the government still have instutionalized racism in the demands for racial identification on forms and the way they take money from some and dole it out to others, but these are democrats, the party has long promoted racism, starting with going to war to keep slaves, segregation, affirmative action.

But America itself outside of the above limited pointless groups, there is no racism. Especially in Hollywood, the bastion of liberal concepts of diversity. The Acadamy Awards is run by an african american woman, so the entire belief that somehow she is causing a lack of diversity is completely insane, if she were racist, then presumably all awards would have gone to african americans, since she is not a racist, the awards went to whomever the academy chose.

2 ( +2 / -0 )

Al has to protest something daily to stay relevant. He is after all a legend in his own mind.

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Hey Al, hands up.....this time it is realistic, not your race divisional "hands up don't shoot" lie. You under arrest for tax fraud.

-2 ( +0 / -2 )

It is simpel. Make your own award, own movies...own news...... then you can choose the degree of diversity as you want.

Instead of using lucrativeness in all fields. It is the same all over the World.

By the way. .. what about the diversity in the USA national basketball team ??

0 ( +1 / -1 )

As soon as Al pays his MULTI-Million Dollar Tax Bill, then MAYBE we can start listening to what he has to say, IF there is any merit to it.

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@smithinjapan

So, actors from ethnic minority groups would rather be nominated because they are from ethnic minority groups than if they had the talent and put forward a good enough performance to be nominated?

Yes, that is exactly Sharpton's point. Merit must be apportioned by groups. He makes his living enforcing that socially damaging principle.

I'm all for affirmative action, but there needs to be moments where you realize that there's a difference between keeping options limited to some is not the same as keeping the options open to all but only some making the cut.

Maybe you are not really for affirmative action after all. For affirmative action to be considered successful the numbers have to add up. There is no way around that.

If you think about it, it is telling how Hollywood's liberal elites present themselves as holier-than-thou on racial issues but act otherwise when they are allowed to hide themselves within the anonymity of the secret awards nominating process. It makes them feel good about themselves to criticize others who reward meritocracy. In public they explain that rewards based solely on merit leads to the denial of the aspirations of under represented minority groups. You cannot have it both ways. The politics of group grievances leads to just this sort of controversy. No one should have any doubts as to the cause of the huge degree of social polarization that exists in America today.

-4 ( +0 / -4 )

Sharpton is for Al only. And he is a tax dodger hypocrite. He is the man he's been for decades, stir up trouble. Support entitlements (but not from my pocket) hypocrite.

1 ( +2 / -1 )

In the end--though many people are loathe to admit it--the movie Selma did not get the expected nominations because of the way Paramount Pictures severely mishandled the movie's marketing to AMPAS voters. I mean, why didn't AMPAS voters get special screener copies of the movies so they could view it at home on specially-modified DVD players by mid-December 2014 at latest? Was the opening date for theatrical release way too late for too many AMPAS voters? And was there a backlash against one Oprah Winfrey, whose production company (Harpo Productions) was heavily involved in the movie?

I think had the movie opened in early December 2014 on a wide scale and AMPAS voters got their screener copies on a more timely basis, Selma would likely have at least six to seven Oscar nominations.

2 ( +2 / -0 )

Al's trying to make money for himself only. Needs someone to listen to him. The news is the only thing he's got to keep himself going. He would be a lost hope without them.

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There are lots of actors (excluding minorities) who have been nominated more than once over the years & still have NO award. This protest seems to be fueled by the fumes of the recent racial drama which has been played out since last aug. in the states.

2 ( +2 / -0 )

I agree with inviting diversity, having a level playing field,but hands down the best person wins.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

I think this kind of action needs to be expanded to benefit other minority groups. I have long been shocked by the dearth of Asian-Americans in the NBA and the NFL, the lack of Inuit-Americans in the National Surfing Championship, and the under-representation of male-Americans in the National Organization of Women.

We need some quotas!

8 ( +9 / -1 )

The major problem is not the nominations itself, it is the lack of roles for nonwhite people. Hollywood will most always choose a caucasian actor unless they are trying to send some sort of ethnic message - and those tend to be supporting roles.

4 ( +6 / -2 )

Good. Stay away! You can't make people nominate and vote for black actors & actresses when there are better performers who are not black. We should applause voters for selecting the people who performed the best, regardless of race, ethnicity. That is fairness. Not Al Sharpton's racism.

7 ( +8 / -1 )

So, actors from ethnic minority groups would rather be nominated because they are from ethnic minority groups than if they had the talent and put forward a good enough performance to be nominated? I'm all for affirmative action, but there needs to be moments where you realize that there's a difference between keeping options limited to some is not the same as keeping the options open to all but only some making the cut.

2 ( +4 / -2 )

When I read

Al Sharpton’s National Action Network

I just sigh. Can't they come up with something better than that?

6 ( +7 / -1 )

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