Uhhh in correct. Many of those actors own production companies. Matt Damon being one of them. Angelina Jolie another. Many are directing their own films and have final say in casting. Also PLENTY of people who are responsible for castings and such go to the Oscars.

The audience includes the most powerful people in Hollywood, many of whom directly benefit from the racist and sexist system of which they are a part. I think it is good to be confronted with that reality.

I mean, make a joke at the expense of Matt Damon’s entitled white-splaining! There were so many jokes he could have made.

This again? Nobody is asking them to apologize. What they’re asking for is solidarity. They may not have made the decisions, but they are, in no small way, indebted to those decisions.

Right, I’m sure all Steven Spielberg can do when presented with a slate of all white actors is shrug his shoulders and take what they give him

You better believe it that there are people in that room who have a say in who is casted in a movie, and who help create the movie. Directors have a say. Audio engineers have a say in who they hire. Blockbuster stars have a say in who they would like to act with. Producers have a say. There were plenty of people in…

It’s a bit feckless to even have big, lavish celebrations in the midst of all this inequality, be it racial, economic, gender, sexual orientation. It’s impossible not to be tone deaf, unless the SAG decided to use the event to promote a new, huge, all-encompassing effort to reform against these issues. Anything else…

I don’t think you understand the degree to which Hollywood intermingles the various roles and responsibilities of film production. Almost all major actors also produce and occasionally direct, the directors right. Everyone important enough to warrant a prominent seat where the camera can see them wears about six…

You’re adorable.

You’re right to an extent, certainly the vast majority of actors have little power on their own. This is the case in all labor relations, or all relations between those with obvious power and those who work for them.

I'd like to see Emma Stone not convince people she can portray someone half-Asian. That would be a start.

Yeah it was almost like he was addressing other white people and not the ones in the room which allows the ones in the room to act like they aren’t the problem. I just wish Rock would have said “You smug “liberal” muthafuckas are part of the problem too!” instead of just saying “Hollywood”. That allows people like…

I guess because they don't protest more? Or public ally acknowledge that being white allowed their project to come to the attention of whomever first over somebody with a darker skin tone or foreign-sounding name.

Point taken, but I guess my thinking is that higher ups could specify that they want a more diverse, representative cast, or else not tolerate such thorough whitewashings. I understand that managers and casting directors are the first line of defense, so to speak, but they’re clearly not the most powerful or…

I appreciated Brie Larson listing the number of people and organizations that led to her winning the Oscar. POC don’t get “teams” of industry elite to push forward their work at all of those film festivals, including marketing and other incidentals requiring more funding.

Casting directors and agents are the gatekeepers. If the director or producer (or the lowly writer) doesn’t specify race for the part then the casting director or agent tends to default to “white” and everyone accepts it as the natural way of things. Trevor Noah’s story about trying to hire a diverse staff is also…

While he may have been doing those jokes for the audience at home, the overwhelming laughter coming from the audience was unnerving. I can’t laugh at them getting told about violence against blacks, when they are laughing at violence against blacks.

So many of the Gawker/Jezebel staff who were involved in the live blogging were white. And a lot of it was your standard “oh, the pageantry of it all. Hollywood!”. I honestly don’t know what to make of this.

Yup. I was thinking that too. It was almost like he was chastizing blacks for caring about the issue.

I just typed an almost identical sentiment.