https://proudstars.blogspot.com/2016/01/lupita-nyongo-criticizes-academy-award.html
Lupita Nyong'o criticizes Academy Award voters for 'unconscious prejudice' as the Oscar-winning actress becomes latest star to comment on the group's diversity issues
- Lupita Nyong'o criticized the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences for their lack of diversity in this year's Oscar nominees
- 'It has me thinking about unconscious prejudice and what merits prestige in our culture,' Nyong'o said of the absence of non-white acting nominees
- Nyong'o did not say she would be boycotting the awards like fellow actress Jada Pinkett Smith and fellow Oscar recipient Spike Lee
- Nyong'o also quoted author James Baldwin, writing; 'Not everything that is faced can be changed. But nothing can be changed until it is faced'
- The actress won an Oscar in 2014 for Best Supporting Actress for her role in 12 Years a Slave
Lupita Nyong'o is the latest star to address the complete lack of diversity among this year's acting nominees for the Academy Award.
The actress, who won the Oscar for Best Supporting Actress in 2014 for her performance in 12 Years a Slave, wrote on Instagram; 'I am disappointed buy the lack on inclusion in this year's Academy Award nominations.
'It has me thinking about unconscious prejudice and what merits prestige in our culture.'
Nyong'o did not however say she would be boycotting the awards like fellow actress Jada Pinkett Smith and fellow Oscar recipient Spike Lee, but did write; 'I stand with my peers who are calling for change in expanding the stories that are told and the recognition of the people who tell them.'
Speaking out: Lupita Nyong'o criticized the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences for their lack of diversity in this year's Oscar nominees (above with fellow Oscar winners Matthew McConaughey, Cate Blanchett and Jared Leto in 2014)
Thoughts: 'It has me thinking about unconscious prejudice and what merits prestige in our culture,' Nyong'o said of the absence of non-white acting nominees
In her Instagram message Nyong'o also quoted author James Baldwin, writing; 'Not everything that is faced can be changed. But nothing can be changed until it is faced.'
The year Nyong'o won the Oscar was the last time that the acting nominees were not all white actors, with Chiwetel Ejiofor and Barkhad Abdi also receiving nods from the Academy.
Nyongo's 12 Years a Slave director Steve McQueen, who is black, also picked up Best Director and the film won Best Picture.
Many pundits assumed that after there were no non-white acting nominees last year things would change when the nominations were announced last week, especially given the number of string choices and performances.
Idris Elba, who had won multiple critics awards and been nominated for a Golden Globe and Screen Actors Guild Award for his performance in Beasts of No Nation was perhaps the most glaring omission, along with the lack of a Best Picture nomination for the critically and commercially successful N.W.A biopic Straight Outta Compton.
The Academy also ignored the critically-lauded performances of promising newcomers such as transgender actress Mya Taylor for her work in Tangerine, Teyonah Parris in Lee's new film Chi-Raq and O'Shea Jackson Jr., Corey Hawkins and Jason Mitchell who were the young stars of Compton.
And the Creed team of star Michael B Jordan and director Ryan Cogler were shut out by the Academy yet again, the same group who showed them no love just two years ago for their work in the highly-praised Fruitvale Station.
