What, really, is the purpose of the Academy Awards, aka the Oscars?  Though I have not watched the Oscars for several decades, I always thought it was about recognizing the best in the film-making industry, and giving special honor to best actors, actresses, directors, cinematographers, editors, writers, etc.  This year, however, it seems to be a breeding ground for conflict, and not for the first time.  A few examples of past controversies:

• In 1940, Gone With the Wind actor Hattie McDaniel won the best supporting actress award for her role as Mammy (well-deserved). She was also asked to sit at a segregated table at the back of the room. Even that appears to have been progress. Producer David O Selznick had to ask for special permission to allow the woman who was to become the first African American Oscar-winner, to even enter the Ambassador hotel in Los Angeles, a venue with a usually strict “no coloureds” policy.

• Elia Kazan’s appearance before the anti-communist House Un-American Activities Committee in 1952, at the height of the McCarthy era and the Hollywood blacklist, had left him a divisive figure. The director’s decision to name former acting colleagues Morris Carnovsky and Art Smith, as well as playwright Clifford Odets, helped destroy the Hollywood careers of all three, and ruined Kazan’s reputation with liberal friends and colleagues. On Oscars night in 1999, a frail 89-year-old Kazan, whose credits included A Streetcar Named Desire and On the Waterfront, was introduced by Martin Scorsese and Robert De Niro and given a standing ovation by Warren Beatty, Kathy Bates, Meryl Streep and Helen Hunt. Yet dozens of other stars, Nick Nolte and Ed Harris among them, remained seated and did not applaud. Outside the theatre, more than 500 protesters gathered to denounce the Academy’s decision to honour him.

• Before 1973, sending a proxy to pick up your Oscar was acceptable, but when Marlon Brando deputised a Native American activist, who then rebuffed the award, it led to the practice being outlawed. Presenter Roger Moore was left clutching the best actor prize as Sacheen Littlefeather explained Brando “regretfully cannot accept this very generous award” due to “the treatment of American Indians today by the film industry and on television and in movie reruns”. Littlefeather was recruited by Brando in response to the Wounded Knee incident, which saw about 200 Oglala Lakota occupy the South Dakota town in protest at their treatment by the government. Her speech was off-the-cuff, after a producer told her she’d be ejected if she tried to read out Brando’s 15-page statement. Littlefeather was met with boos and applause, but her speech continues to highlight the issue, and was even credited by some for persuading federal authorities not to send in the troops at Wounded Knee.

• In 2013, the conflict was of Seth McFarlane engaged in a series of misogynistic remarks and antics. 2014 saw a number of petty squabbles, and in 2015, Time Magazine said “everyone is mad about something at this year’s Oscars. Almost every nominated picture has stirred up controversy and protests at one point or another during the awards season.”

(Source: The Guardian, 28 February 2016)

Which brings us to 2016 and perhaps the most controversial year for the Oscars yet.  Along with the question of which movie will take the “best picture” award, the overriding theme for this year’s Oscars will be the Academy’s failure to recognize non-white actors for the second year in a row, according to Variety.  Jada Pinkett Smith, Will Smith and Spike Lee, all highly talented and respected members of the film industry, committed to a boycott of the event.  The host this year was Chris Rock, who led off with “I’m here at the Academy Awards—otherwise known as the White People’s Choice Awards.”  I heard much criticism of some of his remarks, but if things are to change, then people need to speak up and say, “Hey, this is wrong … fix it or lose it”.

It seems that the time has come, or perhaps came a long time ago, to either make some changes to the way the award nominees are selected, to do whatever is necessary to ensure diversity, or else bring the Academy Awards to an end altogether.  This is supposed to be entertainment, just as the films it is awarding, but if it reeks of racism or bigotry, then it has no right to be called entertainment, it has no place in today’s world.  I have often stated that our country is moving backward in the area of civil rights, of tolerance vs intolerance, and this is just one more example of that phenomenon.  In the ‘70s and ‘80s there was a push to bring African-American roles out of and away from the stereotypes that were prevalent in the ‘50s and ‘60s and previous decades. I knew we had not yet mastered that, but I thought we had come a long way.  Maybe, maybe not, but apparently the Academy has not.  It is time for an overhaul or a cessation.

Again, I do not have any particular interest in the Oscars, rarely watch movies, so I have no real connection, and thus my only knowledge comes from news and other media sources.  Many of my readers could probably expound on this better than I.  But I fight vociferously whenever and wherever I see inequalities, racism, and intolerance, and this is a very popular venue … the Academy should know better and I would suggest that we should all boycott these awards next year if big changes are not made before then.  I can only wonder if the culture of bigotry that is so dominant in the political scene today has spilled over into the Hollywood scene?  If so, it is a dark day, indeed, for the entertainment industry as a whole. Perhaps, just as we need the “wall of separation between church and state”, we also need to build a “wall of separation” between politics and entertainment.