Twitter Responded to the Oscar Nominations the Only Way It Knows How: The Power of #OscarsSoWhite

By Vivian Kane | Miscellaneous | January 15, 2015 |

By Vivian Kane | Miscellaneous | January 15, 2015 |

Thursday morning’s Oscar nominations upset a lot of people. Many were angered by the snubbing of The Lego Movie, and a couple people were probably mad about Jennifer Aniston (namely Aniston and her really expensive Oscar campaign coach), but most of the anger was (deservedly) aimed at Selma being all but shut out of the race, and the general lack of diversity in Hollywood. And when internet people are upset, they turn to the only weapon they know: the hashtag. #OscarsSoWhite began trending early Thursday morning, and some people used it to express their outrage visually.

Twitter responds to whitewashed Oscar nominations with #OscarsSoWhite. http://t.co/R6RMQ9awxw pic.twitter.com/75Atk4Imnk

— Mashable (@mashable) January 15, 2015

#OscarsSoWhite they haven't shifted their selection process in 87 years #OscarNoms pic.twitter.com/oMB1mVXUZ0

— Glen Coco (@MrPooni) January 15, 2015

#Oscarssowhite they can't see a problem in this - The diversity gap in the Academy Awards #Oscars2015 #OscarNoms pic.twitter.com/UOZLOM9Mnl"

— Media Diversified (@WritersofColour) January 15, 2015

Some with jokes.

#OscarsSoWhite that the statue counts as a Person Of Color.

— Hari Kondabolu (@harikondabolu) January 15, 2015

#OscarsSoWhite that voters were disappointed by "Selma" because Martin Luther King wasn't played by Sandra Bullock.

— Hari Kondabolu (@harikondabolu) January 15, 2015

#OscarsSoWhite he hangs out with Macklemore in a gentrified trash can. pic.twitter.com/u6OxatvLWA

— [redacted] (@NotAllBhas) January 15, 2015

#OscarsSoWhite they wear "I CAN Breathe" t-shirts.

— BGD (@BlackGirlDanger) January 15, 2015

#OscarsSoWhite that They replaced the statue with a pumpkin spice latte

— Drew Schnoebelen (@Dschnoeb) January 15, 2015

And some not-so-jokes.

#OscarsSoWhite: The Academy is 94% White. 77% male. Median age: 62. 2% Black members. Thinks a BW prez makes these stats ok.

— Trudy (@thetrudz) January 15, 2015

#OscarsSoWhite may be funny, but all jokes aside, this is the reality POC entertainment lives in. It's not all jokes.

— h.d. (@SvnXIV) January 15, 2015

Look, I’m sure many of you think hashtags are an ineffective way to express yourself, but at the very least, they have the power to quickly show a sense of larger solidarity on an issue. No, this hashtag will not change anything this year. But if we all stay quiet, the chances that anything will be different in 10 years are nil.