YOU'RE DAMN RIGHT HOLLYWOOD IS RACIST- Emily Miller

http://www.cnn.com/2016/02/28/entertainment/chris-rock-oscars-so-white-feat/index.html

The Academy Awards always give us something to talk about, but this year's show was especially headline-worthy for many reasons. Besides the death of the infamous meme as Leonardo DiCaprio won his first Oscar (and I'm still in shock that he won for that role, I mean the role of Jordan Belfort was more dynamic and 'lead actor-friendly' than Hugh Glass, but that's a whole other point), Chris Rock dropped a bomb on the entire Hollywood film industry. If you didn't get a chance to see the show, go watch the opening monologue at least. In the first 5 minutes, Rock gave a clear verdict regarding the #OscarsSoWhite controversy, highlighting the fact that black actors don't get the same opportunities that white actors do. In his words, "You're damn right Hollywood is racist, but not the racist that you've grown accustomed to". Some of Hollywood's most prominent casting directors don't speak against people of color, but they don't cast them either. Rock's delivery of his opinion on the issue was blunt, passionate, and biting, all while being perfectly comical.

His message of the diversity issue continued throughout the entire show as a running gag, and some even thought it excessive. They claim that he went too far, and that the entire tone of the show was made uncomfortable by race jokes. But I think that was the point. I thought his satirical, tricky message achieved exactly its purpose: to make people laugh, but more importantly, to make them think. His head-on, no-filter approach was an essential device to the conveyance of the message, and I thought it was brilliant. It was the most effective way to bring up the controversy while also keeping the audience in good spirits, and furthermore, to headline in post-Oscars discussion. People who say that Chris Rock's show-long discussion of Hollywood racism was "unnecessary" are oblivious to the fact: once #OscarsSoWhite struck the internet, there was no hope of avoiding its discussion during the 88th Academy Awards.