Quincy Jones Music Icon Producer Says He Will Not Be Present At The Oscars Awards

Quincy Jones Music Icon Producer Says He Will Not Be Present At The Oscars Awards
Quincy Jones Music Icon Producer Says He Will Not Be
 Present At The Oscars Awards  
BHR Hollywood Reports..........Quincy Jones, a seven-time Oscar nominee and member of the Academy's board of governors, said he not present an award at the annual ceremony unless he is allowed to speak about the need for greater racial diversity.

The 82-year-old producer, whose accolades include producing Michael Jackson's Off the Wall and Thriller as well as earning 27 Grammy Awards, recently hinted at boycotting the 88th Academy Awards in lieu of the feverish controversy.

“They called me to go present with Pharrell and Common,” Jones said during the National
Quincy Jones 
 Association of Television Program Executives engagement in Miami shortly before he was honored

 “When I’m back [in Los Angeles], I’m going to ask [them] to let me speak for five minutes on the lack of diversity. If not, I’m not going to [present].”
Quincy Jones Holding His Oscar
(March 27, 1995)

“I’ve been involved with Academy longer than I care to remember,” he continued. “I was the first black board member. I hate ‘first black,’ because that means only.”

The AP reported that Jones declined to comment on the list of entertainers who have blatantly called for a boycott of the Oscars such as Jada Pinkett Smith, Spike Lee, Michael Moore (and now Will Smith) but he did offer up his own personal thoughts of the matter.
Quincy Jones 

“There are two ways to do it,” he explained. “You can boycott or you can fix it. It’s frightening to see 90 percent white and 80 percent white male. It’s ridiculous. It’s wrong.”

He was named musical director and conductor of the Academy Awards ceremony in 1971 and, in 1995, he was the first African-American to receive the Academy's Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award.

Jones wouldn't go so far as to comment on those who have already said they will boycott the Oscars, but he did note that he seemed to favor something more proactive.

"There are two ways to do it," he said. "You can boycott or you can fix it. It's frightening to see 90 percent white and 80 percent white male."

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