Film academy apologizes to Asians for jokes during Oscars show
In this Feb. 28 photo, host Chris Rock, right, gestures to three unidentified children portraying auditors in a skit at the Oscars at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles.
LOS ANGELES » The Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences has added three new governors to its 51-member board and appointed six minority members to other leadership positions. The group also apologized for a racially insensitive skit during last month’s Oscar show.
Academy president Cheryl Boone Isaacs announced the new appointees late Tuesday after a meeting of the organization’s Board of Governors. The board also ratified other changes proposed in January in response to the OscarsSoWhite crisis aimed at increasing diversity, including limiting Oscar voting rights to those active in the movie business.
The academy’s apology came after criticism from some Asian academy members offended by a skit during the Oscar show that introduced three Asian kids as academy accountants.
“I can understand the feelings and we are setting up a meeting to discuss, because as you well know, no one sets out to be offensive, and I’m very sorry that has happened,” Boone Isaacs said in a phone interview with The Associated Press late Tuesday. “I think so much is achieved with dialogue, so much is achieved. And that is what we’ll continue to do: have dialogue, listen and just keep fixing.”
In the interview, Boone Isaacs also expanded on Tuesday’s board meeting and the academy’s diversity goals. Responses have been edited for brevity and clarity.
AP: Talk about the new positions announced tonight (new governors include Oscar telecast producer Reginald Hudlin and “Kung-Fu Panda 3” director Jennifer Yuh Nelson; committee members include actor Gael Garcia Bernal and producer Effie Brown).
Boone Isaacs: Now the board has much more of a diversity to it… It’s always good to have some new-ness, someone who comes into the conversation that has been rolling along, just a different perspective… We set out, even a few years ago, of having more inclusion and certainly have stepped it up. We just want to keep this process going, and so were really happy that were able to announce these additions.
AP: How did the voting discussion go? When you first announced planned voting changes in January, some older members worried about losing their privileges.
Boone Isaacs: Overall it was positive. What we have added to this discussion is — our branches are diverse within themselves… in terms of perspective, and we respect this tremendously. We have just clarified a bit more that because the branch qualifications are so varied that the best way to determine specific criteria is within the branches. It’s not such a one-size fits all.
AP: So voters concerned about their voting status can appeal to their branch?
Boone Isaacs: Each branch will review with regard to their qualifications.
AP: A past academy president said the goals you announced in January to double the academy’s female and minority members are impossible to achieve without relaxing standards. Are they?
Boone Isaacs: The thing is we want to set goals and we’re going to work our damndest to meet them all. That’s our goal. The goal is to have one, and then do everything you can to meet it… Everything about us is setting our standards high, and we’re going to continue that.
I think that this conversation really has picked up around the industry as a whole. You see different companies — whether its Bad Robot or Ryan Murphy or Plan B or the program that Warner Bros. just set up — this conversation is really, really rolling. So absolutely: Let’s set it, let’s work for it and do everything we can. That is the goal.
15 responses to “Film academy apologizes to Asians for jokes during Oscars show”
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Maybe the Academy could match the makeup of the USA population in choosing members for their board. Last I heard, blacks are, I think, 12% of the population, so 12% of the members being black would be reasonable. And so forth, including Hispanics, Asians and Whites.
Hollywood is so junk these days
watched neil tyson’s star talk interview with george takei. the subject of limited asian roles came up and takei mentioned how bruce lee was dissed in the kung fu series and ended up with a typical asian role of a driver or chauffeur and the gist of the comment was how progressive the casting of star trek was way back then. had to laugh. takei was the driver for the star trek series.
Ahhhh but George did much more than “Drive the ship” he was a direct part of the ship’s chain of command structure, a ship’s officer. During the series he played many critical roles in the episodes..
Lets not forget Lieutenant Uhura, the first black women/ship’s officer. She originally felt the role was demeaning, wanted to quit. Then in a conversation with Dr. Martin Luther King, she mentioned this. Dr. King was well aware of her character, told her she could not quit, was a role model for other aspiring black women. And remember the first black/white kiss between her and CPT Kirk. Lt Uhura also had bluetooth capability – earpiece.
Star Trek featured a Russian – Lt Chekov, alien – Vulcan Mr. Spock, did so much to open up TV to other races.
You know, when it comes to Black issues, Chris Rock is one of the biggest purveyors of racial whining and ceaseless complaining. This guy seems to think that because he’s black, he has the unspoken right to accuse everybody and anybody who is not black of some contrived racial grievance. I for one have grown weary of the unending litany of attacks on the rest of society when things to happen to go “their” way. Anymore, it’s just static to me and I could not care less just what it is that “they’re” whining about this time. I am so done with their contrived agenda.
Here we have 100-odd words of accusatory, whining, racial grievances by someone who could not care less.
To often we seem to be talking ourselves too seriously. Just a comment from a plain old Asian.
I’m glad you pointed out that obviously unintended irony.
Good one.
Sorry, but I did not think that stereotyping Asian kids as being good at math was offensive. What I thought Asians would have found offensive was Sacha Baron Cohen coming out and talking about “little yellow people with tiny dongs.” He clarified that a moment later by mentioning Minions, but only after a pause to allow for some laughter.
I felt the same way. The minions joke was offensive (but not THAT offensive), but the Chris Rock jokes were funny.
I’m not offended. Hell yeah we’re good in math!
Academy president Cheryl Boone Isaacs is directly responsible for that racist Asian skit, should admit they are a racist, immediately resign. Can’t believe the racial problems permeating the academy from the top down. What a debacle.
To try and make nice, recover from their racist act, the academy should immediately make a multimillion dollar donation to a leading Asian charity and pay for the college education of the three Asian children they victimized. This would be a good start.
Next they should change their governing rules to ensure incompetent, racist people like Cheryl are never hired again, others like her are not allowed to be part of the Academy.
It is sorry, racist acts like this one Cheryl dreamed up, directly responsible for the ever dropping viewers on TV. Out of date programming, boring, racist.
As I said, I thought that was funny!
However, the fact that Rock is black and his monologue and the entire theme of racism was the fabric of the night, I found the timing of the skit incomprehensible.
Same here – seemed incredibly hypocritical. But like you, I thought the accountants bit was pretty funny. Especially how the last kid’s name was Jewish.