Driving miss Daisy
In the heat of the night
Glory.... Denzel Washington, Morgan Freeman
Tuskagee Airmen
Red tails

Morgan Freeman's narration and his character in the Shawshank redemption. The unforgettable line
"Son, everyone in here is innocent"

That would be a fine argument if the winner 100M sprint were decided by panel, rather than sheer human athleticism.

Ironically, if you want to see the universality of racial bias, just have a look at the individuals that Obama and Oprah tend to put forth as worthies.

I think the whole thing is bollocks. Worth nothing beyond poking a bit of fun at.

It's not bollocks to the black actors though, that's the point. They're not taken seriously by the status quo.

Oh please.

Are they being paid for their work? If so, that's the important thing. Not some insider award designed solely for ego stroking and back slapping. If they want to make a point, they're choosing the wrong arena.

There's an idea.

That would spice it up a bit.

We could have the actors fight with those giant ear buds like they used to do in Gladiators.

This whole "identity politics" / "you look like X and thus are representative of X" / "salad not melting pot" / "equal outcome required at all times" crap is tiresome. I don't care about the Hollywood circle jerk that is the Oscars. Having stipulated that, this "protest" from cossetted multimillionaire actors who are treated like royalty is indicative of the total loss of perspective and instant outrage that many Americans seem to revel in these days. This country is childish. As evidence, I give you the absolutely ridiculous farce of an election we currently have going on. The intellectual level of debate in most forums in America is at roughly a fifth grade level. America needs some real problems to worry about if whining that the 2015 Oscar nominations did not contain a sufficient amount of rich actors that look like X is the best it can do.

I was thinking of something a little sharper. Pointier.

The worst part is that America has some real problems to deal with, but for some reason everyone is more concerned with some faux social justice issue instead of fixing the actual issues.

But I'm sure all those poor black families struggling to put food on the table will feel vindicated if a black actor won an oscar, right?

That can be the floor.

Holy $#it! I agree with SoS about something! This is exactly my point: yes, let's worry about Will Smith not getting a shiny trophy when 45 kids shot 45 other kids on the south side of Chicago last weekend.

You can't disagree on everything all of the time, I suppose

But you're right, this (unrepresentative of course) rant by Mrs Smith regarding a celebrity ego fest makes a mockery of the actual problems faced by real families of all colours in cities all over the country. Will Smith winning an oscar won't clean up the water in Flint, or stop Chicago's latest efforts at reducing population.

The Oscars also have a lot more diversity issues other than minority actors being unrepresented. How many great acting performances in bad films are recognised? How many great action/comedy/animated/non-English films ever get nominated for best picture? You get a token one each year and it never wins. It's pretty much just dramas about people overcoming oppression or mental illness.

Won't anyone think of poor Leo in all of this?