“I am here tonight. To explain why black people. Will never be nominated for anything.”
The year was 1977 and Richard Pryor was opening the 49th Academy Awards. After the chuckles settled, Pryor started the night with a dig at number of black acting nominations: a grand total of zero.
The sharp, yet humorous critique of Hollywood’s lack of recognition for actors of color generated laughs and quite possibly served as the first #OscarsSoWhite moment, way before social media was even a thought.
1977 was a year filled with bonafide classics: “Network,” “All the President’s Men,” “Carrie,” “A Star is Born,” “Taxi Driver,” and of course the champ, “Rocky.”
They had one thing in common. They lacked diversity.
(Skip the opening dance number and scroll to 7:40 in the YouTube clip)
Pryor — who was one of four co-hosts along with Warren Beatty, Ellen Burstyn and Jane Fonda — continued his stinging and stilted monologue.
“Black. People. Love. To act. We. Can. Cry. At the drop of a hat. Or laugh. [Awkward laugh] These are. Some of the things. Black people can do.”
A-listers laughed as he launched into mock-protest:
“We’re also going to stop entertaining. That will show you. We refuse to be in show bid’ness all together. We are quitting. Then see who sings and dances for you.”
Sidenote: There were a handful black presenters that night, and it’s not hard to find irony in the fact that “Black and White in Color” was actually the name of the Best Foreign Language Film.
Pryor went on to echo — or foreshadow, rather— a systemic problem: the lack of diversity in the Academy.
“This show is going out to 75 million people. None of them are black. We don’t even know how to vote. There’s 3,349 people in the voting thing. And only two black people. Sidney Poitier and Harry Belafonte.”
According to a 2012 study by the L.A. Times, Oscar voters are nearly 94 percent Caucasian and 77 percent male. Blacks make up about 2 percent of the academy, and Latinos are less than 2 percent, and the number of Asians is so small, it’s not even listed.
This year’s “white-wash” in acting nominations has propelled the conversation on the importance of diversity in filmmaking. Of the 20 actors nominated, there are no persons of color.
But back in ’77, it didn’t take a snubbed film or actor for Pryor to address this issue comedically. What’s remarkable is Pryor’s lashing of the Academy got no press attention at the time.
Thirty years before #OscarsSoWhite was anywhere close to trending, there went Pryor. A whole generation has passed, yet his remarks are still relevant today.
Let’s see what Neil Patrick Harris brings to the joke table.