Spike Lee blasts Hollywood while accepting honorary Oscar award
On Saturday, during the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences' seventh annual Governors Awards, Spike Lee put Hollywood on blast for its diversity problems.
On Saturday, during the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ seventh annual Governors Awards, Spike Lee put Hollywood on blast for its diversity problems.
“Everybody in here probably voted for Obama but when I go to offices, I see no black folks except for the brother man at the security who checks my name off the list as I go into the studio,” he said, reports E! News. “So we can talk ‘yabba yabba yabba’ but we need to have some serious discussion about diversity and get some flavor up in this. This industry is so behind sports it’s ridiculous.
“It’s easier to be the president of the United States as a black person than be the head of a studio,” he continued. “Honestly, it’s easier to be president of the United States than the head of a studio or head of network.”
He then urged directors and producers to look around and realize that there was diversity all around them.
“I don’t know if you noticed but the United States census bureau says by the year 2043, white Americans are going to be the minority in this country,” he said. “And all you people out there in the position of hiring, you better get smart because you’ll work for us. Reflect what this country looks like.”
