یو بینک ہوم لون - گورنمنٹ مارک اپ سبسڈی اسکیم

The latest Academy Awards nominations have started a racial storm that has risen from Hollywood and caught the attention of the world.

For a second year running, the nominees in the four acting categories are all white performers. This has led to the question: were forty white actors better than any black, Latino, or Asian actor for two years in a row?

While many members of the industry seem to feel the controversy is too hot to touch, for others the battle lines have been drawn. Black filmmakers such as Spike Lee and actors like Jada Pinkett Smith have announced a boycott while veteran actor George Clooney has been heavily critical on Hollywood, stating that the industry is moving in the wrong direction.

As The Economist points out, of the 6000 plus voting members of the Academy, 94% are white. The paper goes on to say, “The chances of no single person of color being nominated across two ceremonies would be exceptionally small — even during a 15-year span, the odds of seeing at least one sequence of back-to-back whiteouts are around one in 100,000.”

Though a large chunk of the audience stands in solidarity with people of colour, some have hit back with claims of ‘reverse racism’ and also expressed the belief that black actors aren’t being nominated because perhaps they don’t deserve it.