Oscars protest stopped at the request of Selma director


A scheduled protest against the Oscars was canceled at the request of Selma director Ava DuVernay, but organizers say they will continue to demand more diversity in Hollywood.
The political director of the Los Angeles chapter of the National Action Network, Najee Ali, said in a statement that the group will "pursue instead a direct dialogue with the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences." This year, all 20 of the acting nominees are white, and the show has been criticized for not recognizing DuVernay or the stars of the civil rights film Selma, the Los Angeles Times reports. "We salute all the artists being celebrated today at the Oscars while demanding an examination of the sidelining and underrepresentation of artists of color and women artists," Ali said in the statement. "Art can change the world, and the world is more diverse than this year's honorees."
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Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.
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