Chris Rock confronted race at the Oscars, but ultimately it was a night for white people
In terms of diversity, this year's Oscars was a night of historic highs -- and embarrassing lows.
Chris Rock's monologue stole the night, while Alejandro González Iñárritu made history with another Best Director win. But the show wasn't without its cringeworthy moments.
Rock opened the show with a powerful monologue, rising to the occasion that the #OscarsSoWhite campaign demanded. He stepped up to the plate, immediately skewering the Academy for its lack of nonwhite nominees.
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"You realize if they nominated hosts, I wouldn’t even get this job," Rock joked. "Y’all would be watching Neil Patrick Harris right now."
The monologue hit hard at the Academy. At one point, Rock even said, "You’re damn right Hollywood is racist."
How racist? "Sorority racist," he explained. "It’s like, 'We like you, Rhonda, but you’re not a Kappa.'”
Still, the monologue had its missteps -- like when Rock said that black people didn't protest the awards show back in the '50s and 60s because they had "real" things to protest. He also made an uncomfortable joke about Jada Pinkett-Smith's decision to boycott the awards show.
"Jada boycotting the Oscars is like me boycotting Rihanna’s panties," he says. "I wasn’t invited."
But that wasn't nearly as cringeworthy as the Stacey Dash bit that followed and flopped -- hard.
Why bother giving a platform to a woman who has campaigned for the elimination of both BET and Black History Month, and has disregarded the entire #OscarsSoWhite conversation as well?
Rock's next big miss came via an uncomfortable joke about child labor, told at the expense of three Asian children. The bit hit all the wrong notes.
The joke also spurred conversation about Rock's choice to mainly highlight the exclusion of black actors and artists in his monologue and recorded sketches, rather than widening his complaints to include a fuller spectrum of diversity.
That conversation also led to the rekindling of the important hashtag #NotYourMule, which addresses the difficult relationship between black people of color and nonblack POC when it comes to working together against racism and prejudice.
Ultimately, there were no black winners at this year's Oscars, though there were nonwhite winners in several categories.
Asif Kapadia, who directed Best Documentary winner Amy, and Sharmeen Obaid-Chinoy, who directed Best Documentary Short winner A Girl in the River, both picked up trophies. There were also nonwhite presenters throughout the night, including Lee Byung-hun, Sofia Vergara, Dev Patel and Priyanka Chopra -- in what seemed like a concerted effort by ABC to diversity the show.
Chilean filmmakers Gabriel Osorio and Pato Escala won for Best Animated Short category with Bear Story, marking the country's first win.
The Revenant's Alejandro González Iñárritu also made history by winning Best Director, notching a historic back-to-back victory after grabbing the same trophy last year for Birdman. He also made a point of addressing prejudice in his acceptance speech.
"What a great opportunity to our generation to really liberate ourselves from all prejudice and tribal thinking, and make sure for once and forever that the color of the skin becomes as irrelevant as the length of our hair," he said.
This year is also the fourth time in a row that a nonwhite director has won the Best Director statue. Previous winners included Iñárritu, Alfonso Cuarón and Ang Lee.This year is also the fourth time in a row that a nonwhite director has won the Best Director statue.
Sam Smith, who won Best Song for "Writing's On the Wall," was the only winner to speak out about LGBT representation, addressing his win as an openly gay man. He did, however, think he was the first openly gay winner in Oscar history, which isn't actually true.
Academy president Cheryl Boone Isaacs also directly addressed the lack of inclusion in Hollywood during her speech, mentioning the Academy's new rules for a more inclusive future.
"Our audiences are global and rich in diversity and every facet of our industry should be as well," she said.
She ended her speech with a quote from Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
"The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands in times of challenge and controversy," she recited.
The show ended with Rock shouting "Black lives matter," then Public Enemy's "Fight the Power" playing over the credits -- which didn't go unnoticed by Chuck D.
Unapologetic and in-your-face, Rock's monologue and closing remarks made him a host worth rooting for this year. He had to deal with the gargantuan responsibility of taking Hollywood to task -- and though he stumbled, ultimately, that's exactly what he did.
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Topics Oscars
Yohana Desta was the senior film reporter for Mashable. She is a Northern Virginia native and an American University grad. She enjoys carefully curating her Instagram account and can often be found reading books, going to concerts, watching movies and learning way too much about pop culture.
