More and more celebrities are joining the boycott against the 2016 Oscars after the Academy nominated only white actors for the second year in a row. Chris Rock, an outspoken figure on minority issues, is currently facing pressure to join the movement, with celebrities like 50 Cent and Tyrese Gibson asking him to step down as the award show's host – but will he step down with just weeks to go?
50 and Gibson are the latest black artists to join the recently launched boycott of this year's Academy Awards. With the ceremony's Feb. 28 date rapidly approaching to a little over a month from now, the two stars asked Rock to join in on the boycott.
A photo posted by 50 Cent (@50cent) on Jan 16 2016 at 5:28 PST
"There is no joke that [Rock] can crack. There is no way for him to seize the moment and come into this thing and say, 'I'm going to say this and say that I'm going to address the issue but then I'm still going to keep my gig as the host,' " Gibson told People about Rock possibly stepping down from the job.
"The statement that you make is that you step down."
So far it's unclear what Rock's stance on the subject is. When the nominees were first announced last week, the Everybody Hates Chris creator took to Twitter to call the ceremony "the White BET Awards," but he's since stayed silent on the subject. In the meantime, some of the biggest names in show business, including Gotham actress Jada Pinkett Smith and Snoop Dogg have called for a boycott of the ceremony because of its lack of diversity in the nominees ballot in 2016, something that also happened last year.
The Inquisitr reports that not everyone on Hollywood's black community supports the boycott move. Comedian and talk show host Arsenio Hall publicly said Rock should still host the Oscars, saying it's important that he's "on the mic" during that time, and The View co-host Whoopi Goldberg also voiced disagreement over the boycott, saying there were other ways.
If Rock goes through with the gig, he might be the only African American in the Dolby Theater that night.
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