Nick Cannon Sounds Off On The Oscars And Host Chris Rock
Nick Cannon is the latest celebrity to weigh in on the Oscar debate and its issue with diversity. Cannon, who’s recently made headlines again after his ex-wife Mariah Carey became engaged, has decided to use his creativity to put out a statement about the controversy.
Cannon has decided to release a spoken word video called “Don’t be distracted.” In the video, the former Nickelodeon star called out the issues surrounding the Oscars and issues that are going on outside of the Academy Awards discussion.
“We cryin’ for votes but how many of us are on the board? Better yet, when’s the last time you showed up and supported the NAACP awards? I want what’s mine, not yours, f–k getting my foot in, I’m building my own doors.”
Nick Cannon Drops Spoken Word Poem On Racism, The Oscars, & More https://t.co/A8plveeiFN pic.twitter.com/MfyfLoEsV8
— HipHopWired (@HipHopWired) January 25, 2016
He added, “Hollywood mainstream don’t validate me. Talent and brilliance, man we got that s–t. That’s why I told Chris Rock to go ahead and rock the s–t. You got the juice now, fight the power. Hell yeah I’m going to watch that ceremony where they let a black man be a master for at least two hours. Don’t waste your voice.”
At one point, he tells everyone to save their voices for when it counts, which is to say a prayer for the thousands that are dying in Nigeria, Kenya, Philippines, Syria, or “right here in our urban areas — lower America.”
While Cannon has made it clear that there are other pressing issues going on in the world that involve black people, he also mentioned that he’s going to watch the Oscars. It sounds like he doesn’t think boycotting is going to do much. Cannon’s Chi-Raq director Spike Lee called for a boycott of the Oscars with Jada Pinkett Smith, but recently, Lee caught up with Good Morning America to clear the air.
Spike Lee says he is not calling for a boycott of this year’s #Oscars: https://t.co/Mw6caetSgh pic.twitter.com/nzqWeUzdaB
— Entertainment Weekly (@EW) January 20, 2016
“Heres the thing — I have never used the word boycott. All I said is that we’re not coming and I gave the reason. I never said to anyone — it’s like do you, we’re not coming. I’m not going.”
President Cheryl Boone Isaac has been put in a difficult position. Being the president of the Academy who’s also African American, she has had to hold a certain level of decorum while admitting that there’s something terribly wrong within the broken system of voting. After releasing a statement that she’s “frustrated” by the lack of diversity, she released a plan to change the system from within the Oscars.
In a new statement, Isaac said, “The Academy is going to lead and not wait for the industry to catch up. “These new measures regarding governance and voting will have an immediate impact and begin the process of significantly changing our membership composition.”
This includes new roles, one which states that each member’s status will be good up to 10 years and then will be under review. The member’s academy status will be renewed only if they’ve contributed work within those 10 years.
To bring in the diversity, members will sponsor only new members “by launching an ambitious, global campaign to identify and recruit qualified new members who represent greater diversity.”
Some have argued that it doesn’t start at the Oscars but rather speaks to the lack of opportunities in the industry, but it looks like the Academy president isn’t waiting around for that to happen.
What do you think about Nick Cannon’s poem?
[Photo by Dave Kotinsky/Getty Images]
