STANDARDS

CCSS: 6.SP.B.4, 6.SP.B.5, 7.SP.B.3, 8.SP.A.1, MP1, MP5, MP6

TEKS: 6.12A, 6.12B, 6.12C, 6.12D, 6.13A, 7.6G, 7.12A, 8.5C, 8.11A

Who Wins the Oscars?

February 13, 2017

By Jennifer Hackett

One of the highest honors an actor can receive is the 13.5-inch-tall, 8.5-pound gold Oscar statuette. The Oscars are awarded by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, recognizing the best performances by actors and actresses every year. But for the past two years, despite moving performances in films like Selma and Creed, black, Latino, and Asian actors have not been nominated for Oscars.

Fans used #OscarsSoWhite to protest on Twitter. April Reign, a former lawyer and editor of the website Broadway Black, created the hashtag after the 2015 nominees were announced. She noticed that all 20 acting nominations went to white actors and actresses and used the hashtag to express her frustration.

Critics are also concerned that the Academy, which votes on Oscar nominees and winners, is overwhelmingly white and male. After the #OscarsSoWhite backlash, the Academy announced a goal to diversify by 2020. And the 2016 group of Academy inductees is a good start: It’s diverse, both in terms of gender and ethnicity. The Academy, including the new members, is now voting on the 2017 Oscars, which will be held on February 26.

Content Types

Articles

Statistics & Probability

Bar Graphs, Charts and Tables

Answer the following questions using the information in the charts and graph above.

How many nonwhite inductees were in the 2016 Academy class?

A) 86
B) 242

C) 277
D) 406

How many more tweets about the Oscars were there in 2016 compared with 2015?

A) 1.8 million
B) 4.6 million

C) 7.2 million
D) 11 million

How many black actors and actresses have won an Oscar in one of the four major acting categories in the past 20 years?

A) 2
B) 4

C) 5
D) 9

The 2015 Oscars were on February 22. How many days passed between the creation of #OscarsSoWhite and the event?

A) 15 days
B) 22 days

C) 38 days
D) 45 days

What percent of the 2016 Academy class is Latino or black?

A) 12%
B) 13%

C) 23%
D) 24%

Which category in the graph above had the greatest number of nonwhite Oscar winners?

A) Director
B) Original Screenplay

C) Adapted Screenplay
D) Original Song

If the rate of #OscarsSoWhite tweets per hour had remained constant, how many tweets would there have been during the week after the hashtag was created?

Over the past 20 years, what fraction of acting Oscars went to nonwhite actors and actresses?

In which categories in the graph have no Latinos won an Oscar over the past 20 years?

Before the 2016 class was added, there were 463 nonwhite members in the Academy. What was the percent increase of nonwhite members in 2016?

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