Chris Rock opening monologue at 2016 Academy Awards

Here is Chris Rock's full opening monologue at the 2016 Academy Awards. Rock addresses the topics of race, Hollywood and a boycott on the Academy Awards during the opening of Sunday evening's Oscar Awards in his own comedic way.

What to do since you are not watching the Academy Awards.

By George L. Cook III, AfricanAmericanReports.com georgelcookiii@gmail.com.

Author’s Note: I might suggest at least tuning in to see the beginning of the show and to hear Chris Rock’s monologue and see how he addresses the #OscarsSoWhite issue.

Many African Americans have planned not to watch tonight’s Academy Awards show in response to the #OscarsSoWhite controversy.

Now there are a good number who had no plans to watch the show anyway, but there are some who normally do if for no other reason than to post negative tweets about it.

Now for those few who had actually planned to watch it, but have chosen instead to support the #Blackout movement I have a few suggestions as to what you might do tonight.

* Watch the All Def Movie Awards show on Fusion TV, which is airing the same time as the Academy Awards. You will have to search for the channel though and then hope that you are subscribed to it.

* Watch The Black Panthers: Vanguard of a Revolution here: http://www.pbs.org/independentlens/videos/the-black-panthers-vanguard-of-the-revolution/

* Read a book. I don’t care which one, just read a damned book and educate yourself. It can’t hurt.

* Watch tonight’s episode of The Walking Dead. Yes, I know they have a habit of killing off black people, but the show has more black characters than most “black” shows to begin with. In the interest of full disclosure, I have to admit I’m a huge TWD fan, so I may be biased here.

* Sit down and talk to those people called your family. Those are the people that live in the same house, normally have the same last name, and you may have occasionally seen them at the dinner table, you may even have spoken to them before.

* Go see the Jesse Owens biopic RACE, I think it’s still in 10 or 12 theaters nationwide.

* Go to sleep. A little extra rest before the start of the work week never hurt anyone.

Chris Rock Rewriting Monologue to Address #OscarsSoWhite Outrage

Outrage over the lack of diversity among nominees at the Oscars will not keep Chris Rock from his hosting duties. Rock is rewriting his script to address the #OscarsSoWhite controversy according to the Academy Awards Producer Reginald Hudlin. Watch Hudlin's interview with ET below:

Should African American viewers boycott the Oscars?

By George L. Cook III AfricanAmericanReports.com Email George

Not one African American was nominated for an Academy Award this year. In a year that included outstanding performances by Samuel L. Jackson (The Hateful 8), Micheal B. Jordan (CREED), Idris Elba (Beast of no Nation), Will Smith (Concussion), and Tessa Thompson (Creed), and a year that included great films directed by Ryan Coogler (CREED) and Cary Fukunaga (Beast of No Nation) not one African American person was nominated for anything.

This has led to the return of the #OscarsSoWhite hashtag on social media but lets be a serious at the end of the day a hashtag is just a hashtag. Bringing notice to a situation is great but there has to be some followup action. I believe that African American viewers should boycott the Oscars in protest this year. That would give the show lower ratings and lower ratings equals less advertising dollars in the future for the Academy Awards. One color that Hollywood understands the most is green, and if you affect that green you can effect change.

So lets start a new hashtag, #BlackBoycottOscars, and then follow that up with action.