Lupita Nyong'o and Don Cheadle Add Their Voices to Oscars Diversity Controversy

The list of celebrities voicing their frustrations about the lack of nominees of color at the 2016 Academy Awards is growing by the day.

Don Cheadle and Lupita Nyong’o are also chiming in to the growing chorus. Nyong’o, who won the Academy Award in 2014 for her role in 12 Years a Slave, shared her thoughts via Instagram.

 

“Not everything that is faced can be changed. But nothing can be changed until it is faced.” – James Baldwin #manystoriesmanyvoices

A photo posted by Lupita Nyong’o (@lupitanyongo) on Jan 19, 2016 at 8:40pm PST

Cheadle, who was nominated for his role in the 2004 film, Hotel Rwanda, added humor to his take on the lack of diversity on Twitter.

@chrisrock Yo, Chris. Come check me out at #TheOscars this year. They got me parking cars on G level.

— Don Cheadle (@IamDonCheadle) January 17, 2016

The star continued with his commentary regarding the awards show adding in a series of tweets that, “The #OscarsSoWhite of it all, is indicative of much more than an awards show. It is the symptom of bigger themes of bias,inclusion, access, identity, power, etc. By itself, the show is not weighty. It’s about what it represents.”

“The show in and of itself means little to me,” Cheadle tweeted.

“The mechanisms and systems that created the atmosphere, do. There will ALWAYS be “snubs” (whatever that means) and people of ALL walks looked over. It’s a contest decided by people who vote for who [they] like. It’s not an objective evaluation. They took the word “best” out of it in part in recognition of the inane determination that people performing in completely diff roles and films could be qualitatively compared. They expanded the field to bring in more “popular” titles. The underpinnings are still about commerce even if it results in people being bestowed the trophy. The metal, posterity… Who cares?

What we ALL should desire, from ALL walks, is the ability to compete fairly and have access. If that were the case, then the results of this pageant would matter little. The outrage is not about not getting a nod It’s about not getting an equal shot based on institutionalized biases that prevent everybody from getting to go to the show.” Let’s hope Chris Rock does what he does best and with humor and insight, pillories ALL of us.”

Preach!!