The 88th Academy Awards was full of surprises and some truly cringeworthy moments. “Spotlight” won best picture, which was a shock to all, but perhaps the most startling event of the night was comedian Chris Rock’s opening monologue.
After the academy did not recognize a single actor of color for the second year in a row, many were curious as to how Rock would address the race issue on Hollywood’s biggest night.
Needless to say, Rock did not let Hollywood off easy. He dove straight into controversy during his opening remarks, calling the award ceremony “the White People’s Choice Awards.”
“You realize if they nominated hosts, I wouldn’t even get this job! You’d all be watching Neil Patrick Harris right now,” Rock said.
While some of his remarks were funny, like the time he compared Hollywood racism to sorority selection — “We like you Rhonda, but you’re not a Kappa” — many of Rock’s jokes missed the mark and undermined the issue of racism in Hollywood.
In one of the most awkward encounters ever displayed on television, Rock introduced Stacey Dash, an outspoken African-American actress who has publicly bashed both the #OscarsSoWhite movement and Black History Month, as the new director of the academy’s “minority outreach program.” While it was supposed to be ironic, audience members were visibly uncomfortable, and silence filled the room.
Rock’s general statement of the evening seemed to be that “black people want opportunities” in Hollywood, a point he hammered home, yet it was clear Rock neglected the fact that #OscarSoWhite movement included actors of all minorities.
In one of the most egregious missteps, Rock introduced a pack of young Asian children as “accountants” from the PricewaterhouseCoopers firm, the firm responsible for tallying the academy’s votes.
“They sent us their most dedicated, accurate, and hardworking representatives: Ming Xu, Bao Ling, and David Moskowitz. If anyone’s upset about that joke, just tweet about it on your phone that was also made by these kids,” Rock said, as three young Asian children walked out onto the stage.
The small children were visibly confused and did not know where to stand. It was clear the whole encounter was in poor taste and discriminatory against Asians. While Rock made it clear it isn’t OK to exclude African Americans from the Academy Awards, Rock often threw other minorities under the bus.
Rock had the opportunity to take Hollywood to task for excluding other minorities from the award shows, but he never made an attempt. He could have reached out in solidarity and congratulated nonwhite actors and directors who were up for nominations, like Alejandro Inarritu or Asif Kapadia. Instead, Rock focused his entire act on African-American representation, as opposed to inclusion of all races from all countries.
Rock closed the award show by shouting, “Black lives matter,” as credits rolled to Public Enemy’s “Fight the Power.”
While Rock used his humor to bring attention to the the inequality in Hollywood, the way in which he went about it damaged the cause he was trying to support.
