#OscarSoWhite

Seven Rocky pictures. Which Stallone is pretty much solely responsible for. Which made Hollywood exactly $1,285,192,797. Just so we’re clear, that’s 1.3 billion U.S. dollars. In the words of John Malkovich’s Russian character in “Rounders,” “Give dat man his Mah-neee!” No, wait—that’s what Stallone gave Hollywood. So—“Give dat man his Oscar!” Enough said.

What’s New at the 2016 Oscars? Rather than having winners recite long thank-you lists, those names will now scroll at the bottom of your TV screen.

“As many of you know, we have implemented changes to diversify our membership in the last four years. But the change is not coming as fast as we would like. We need to do more, and better and more quickly.”

Is there any connection between these two years in a row of #OscarSoWhite,“ the hundred or so repetitions of the ”N-word” in Tarantino’s latest N-word opus magnum, and republican right wing thinly-veiled politics of exclusion, fear, and racism? Any connection at all? Maybe so. Maybe not. One thing’s for certain though—the Oscars are an American institution.