Rev. Al Sharpton threatens boycott of Oscars advertisers if minority representation doesn't increase

Civil rights leader Rev. Al Sharpton slammed the lack of diversity among Oscar nominees and in the industry Sunday, threatening to initiate a boycott of Oscars advertisers in the future if there isn’t more equitable representation.

This year, “we saw movies like Idris Elba’s ...”Beast of No Nation,” movies like “Straight Outta Compton,” “Concussion” and “Creed,” yet, when the nominations were aounced, not one of those movies, not one of those actors, not one of those actresses of color were nominated for the second year in a row,” Sharpton said during a sermon Sunday moing at First AME Church of Los Angeles.

While film executives and the industry have promised to do better, Sharpton said there needs to be “a little pressure” through advertisers. Civil rights groups are hosting an #OscarsSoWhite protest and “tune out” of the Academy Awards ceremony starting at 2 p.m. Sunday at Sunset Boulevard and Highland Avenue.

“We’ll tell advertisers we know you can’t break your contracts this year but we’re going to put your nose in the coer going forward,” Sharpton said. “If they want to have a whites-only award, you don’t need no black dollars in your pocket.”

Sharpton’s statements come less than a week after a damning USC study found that the film industry “functions as a straight, White boy’s club.”

The “Comprehensive Aenberg Report on Diversity” examined the 109 films released by major studios and art-house divisions in 2014. It also examined more than 300 scripted, first-run TV and digital series across 31 networks and streaming services that aired from September 2014 to August 2015.

In the 414 studied films and series, only a third of speaking characters were female, and only 28 percent were from minority groups — about 10 percent less than the makeup of the U.S. population. Characters 40 years or older were largely male across film and TV: 74 percent male to about 26 percent female. Only two percent of speaking characters were identified as LGBT.

Actors Will Smith and Jada Pinkett Smith are among the Hollywood stars who have said they are boycotting today’s Academy Awards ceremony protesting two consecutive years of all-white acting nominees. Smith’s critically acclaimed role in the movie “Concussion” was overlooked in the Oscar nominations.

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts aounced last month a series of changes to its voting and membership procedures in an effort to double its female and minority membership by 2020.

The Associated Press and City News Service contributed to this report.

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