Comedian Nick Cannon Shares A Poem Statement About The Oscars

Comedian Nick Cannon Shares Poem Statement About The Oscars 

BHR Hollywood Reports......... The Oscars’ lack of non-white nominees this year has inspired a variety of responses.

Celebrities like Spike Lee and Will Smith have announced they will not attend this year’s ceremony, and the Academy announced steps to increase diversity in its membership.

Spike Lee 

 Nick Cannon’s response is perhaps the most unique yet. On Sunday, Cannon published a video of himself reciting a powerful spoken word poem that connected the Oscars controversy to the greater fight for racial justice. .

Nick Cannon is weighing in on #OscarsSoWhite in a very unique way — through spoken word.

The actor penned a poem about the outrage over the lack of diversity in this year's nominations, calling out the boycotters for putting too much importance on an awards show when there are real problems in the world.

Nick Cannon 

In the black-and-white clip, Cannon starts by explaining that the piece was "not another trophy rant."

"Look what they did to Oscar," he says. "I'm talking Oscar Grant, Sandra Bland, Mike Brown, Tamir Rice, Eric Garner, Freddie Gray. Why we trust what the news say anyway? It's blasphemous, don't get distracted by these lottery tickets and statues."

He continues, calling that coveted statuette "just fake gold and plastic" and commenting on the Academy's lack of diversity with, "We crying for votes but how many of us is on the board." The answer to Nick's question, BTW, is just one — Academy President Cheryl Boone Isaacs is the only person of color on the 51-person board.

"Hollywood mainstream don't validate me, yo," Cannon concludes. "… You in this show for the business or this business for the show?"