Al Sharpton Calls List Of All-White Oscar Nominees ‘Appalling’ – Announces Emergency Meeting

Long-time activist and Reverend Al Sharpton is not at all pleased with the list of who was nominated for this year’s Oscar awards for acting, directing, and other cinematic achievements. Al Sharpton doesn’t seem to be upset that those nominated aren’t talented, or that they don’t deserve a nomination, but what has left Sharpton seething is Oscar’s list of all-white nominees.

When the list of Oscar nominees was released on Thursday and Sharpton saw its lack of African-American and other black talent, a statement was forthcoming, reports Business Insider via Yahoo Finance.

The Reverend Al Sharpton, along with being a highly visible black activist, has also been a long time outspoken critic of the lack of diversity he sees in Hollywood, including in his statement that he would be putting on an “emergency meeting” in coming days to call Hollywood and the Oscars out for their failure to represent and nominate Blacks.

“The movie industry is like the Rocky Mountains, the higher you get, the whiter it gets… I have called an emergency meeting early next week in Hollywood with the task force to discuss possible action around the Academy Awards.”

The Academy Awards and Oscar nominations have been taking an accused-of-being-racist shellacking since the list of nominees was released. It’s not just the Reverend Al Sharpton, but many others as well. In fact, along with Sharpton’s venting, the Oscars have been widely criticized for nothing but white people for the best actor, best actress, and best director nominees.

According to the Hollywood Reporter, there has only been one other instance where African-Americans have been snubbed by Oscar in such a manner in the past two decades.

The Reverend Al Sharpton wasn’t totally negative on the Oscar nominations, however. The one glowing decision he agreed with was that the highly acclaimed black civil-rights film, Selma, based on the marches and activism of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., got an Oscar nod for Best Picture.

But even this Al Sharpton found to be “ironic,” given the film’s subject matter and message, and now the absence of black nominations for Oscars.

“The lack of diversity in today’s Oscar nominations is appalling and while it is good that Selma was nominated for ‘Best Picture,’ it’s ironic that they nominated a story about the racial shutout around voting while there is a racial shutout around the Oscar nominations. With all of the talent in Selma and other black movies this year, it is hard to believe that we have less diversity in the nominations today than in recent history.”

The repercussions for lack of black inclusion in the 2015 Oscar nominations is not likely to go away quietly, and few are likely to be as vocal about the situation as Reverend Al Sharpton.

[Image via CBS New York]